Nicole Ward, a certified nurse assistant at Greenville Skilled Nursing & Rehab in Smithfield, gets paid $13 an hour. It’s not enough, she says, to support her two daughters, ages 9 and 7.
“Trying to provide for them on $13 an hour is not easy,” she says in the latest Caregivers Rising video from the SEIU 1199NE, the labor union that represents 4,000 health care workers in Rhode Island and is advocating for a $15 minimum wage. “Certain bills I have to push back, maybe a month or two. It just seems like I’m not balancing everything with the pay that I have, it’s just not enough.”
The video series is timed to coincide with local political efforts to make structural changes to Medicaid that could affect front line health care workers like Ward.
“It’s time that our society shows that we truly value the work that our caregivers do each day,” said SEIU 1199NE Executive Vice-President Patrick J. Quinn. The compassionate care they provide needs to be recognize by the state and employers in the form of a living wage.”
He added that health certified nurse assistants in Rhode Island like Ward earn on average less than her counterparts in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Sue Sulham has been caring for developmentally disabled people in the Blackstone Valley for more than 20 years. She makes just $11.20 an hour.
“I don’t want to live beyond my means,” Sulham said. “I just want to be able to make a payment on time, to go grocery shopping and maybe luncheon meat would be nice … instead of peanut butter and jelly. I’d be able to live better if I could have $15.”
It can be too easy to forget that real Rhode Islanders have to live on the low wages that some of us only know about in abstract political terms. But Sulham now has a way to tell us about her plight.
SEIU 1199NE, the union that represents Sulham and about 4,000 other health care workers in Rhode Island, is producing video testimonials of local workers who are struggling to get by on their current incomes. Sulham’s is the first:
The videos coincide with state leaders considering making huge cuts to the state Medicaid program. “Our view is that Medicaid investments should be directed towards high-quality frontline care and towards ensuring that no health care worker is living in poverty,” said SEIU 1199NE Executive Vice-President Patrick J. Quinn. “It’s time that our society shows that we truly value the work that our caregivers do each day.”
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