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As a result of thousands of home care workers coming together to take action, we’ve won funding in the state budget to raise the minimum wage for Community Care Program home care workers to at least $18/hour starting January 2025! 

This is a huge step forward in our ongoing fight for $25. This was a challenging budget climate, and yet we were still able to win raises for home care workers at a time when many other state programs will face cuts.

This victory was made possible by the thousands of seniors and home care workers that took action to make home care a priority.

Over the last three months, we have demanded lawmakers address the care crisis by raising pay for home care workers through: 

• Weekly lobby days with members at the capitol.
• Two giant rallies in the rotunda. Click here to view photos.
• A roundtable discussion with Sen. Dave Koehler and the Illinois Alliance of Retired Americans about the care crisis. Click here to view news coverage.
• A press conference with President Greg Kelley to mark International Workers’ Day.
• Providing stakeholder testimony during budget hearings about why raises in pay are essential to addressing the workforce shortage.
• Digital ads featuring personal stories from seniors and home care workers targeted at key lawmakers and their staff. Click here to watch our advertisements.
• Thousands of personal phone calls to the offices of state legislators, and
• A petition with over 4,000 signatures from home care workers in over 500 cities and towns across Illinois.

Along with our calls for higher pay, we also joined a coalition demanding state lawmakers adopt revenue solutions so we can fund the vital services our communities count on.

Some state programs will unfortunately face cuts due to revenue shortfalls. But because members stuck together and made their voices heard, our legislators got the message: home care is essential, and we must build the workforce our seniors need by increasing pay for home care workers.

We will be headed back to the bargaining table in the coming months to implement this rate increase and seniority raises with home care agencies, so stay tuned for that process.

Our fight continues for $25/hour, but this victory is testament to what we can achieve when we stick together through our union.

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