Budget boosts wages for disability workers

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This article was published 27/04/2022 (1600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A funding boost for disability service providers is “a long time coming” and very much welcomed, says one agency in Brandon.

The province announced Wednesday as part of Budget 2022’s commitment to invest in communities that it is providing $29 million to support disability services and bump up the wages of those who work for them.

Community Living disABILITY Services providers who work with adults with intellectual disabilities are getting $10 million in new money to increase frontline wages to a minimum-funded baseline rate of $15.11 per hour for direct service workers and $16.11 per hour for supervisors.

The program will also increase service rates to day service providers by 2.7 per cent to improve wages and their recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

This is on top of a $2.5-million CLDS Labour Force Support Grant delivered to the sector last March.

It has been a long wait, but getting this funding now is going to bring some relief to staff and the agencies that employ them, said Brenda Elmes, executive director of Brandon Community Options.

“It’s been a long time coming and we are glad there has been some political will to make it happen.”

The clients they serve need assistance because of their disabilities. The services could range from home care, to helping them run errands, go to appointments and even social events like sports games. Without staff assistance, many of those people couldn’t do those things, she said.

Brandon Community Options has existed for more than 40 years. It offers a range of respite and residential services to support independent living.

In her 34 years at the non-profit organization, wages have barely risen since 2012, she said. She sat on the human resource committee for the non-profit organization in 2003 and back then, they wanted to have their employees earning $15 an hour by 2013. They have only reached that goal now.

This wage increase isn’t so much about employees earning more money as it is about their ability to help their clients. This is a vocation and a passion to help people and make a difference in their lives. Everyone who chooses this profession knows there isn’t a lot of money in it, but they get to have direct impacts on their community through their services.

However, service workers and supervisors still need to make a living, and this funding will help those currently working take home a little more, as well as attract new people. Stagnating wages caused many to take on multiple jobs or leave entirely to work for other health-care agencies. This drained staffing levels and available skills.

Anything that can help retain staff and pay them a decent wage will help them as an organization, which will in turn benefit their clients, Elmes said.

“It’s sad to see so many leave because we are a big employer in Brandon and we’ve been around for a long time.”

This funding, plus the grant in March, doesn’t amount to a lot of money, Elmes said, but it helps.

“I’ll be so happy to share this news with my employees,” she said. “A lot of agencies for two years have been very restricted in what we can do, and in these last couple months we really feel we can get back into the game. This is all timely for us and we can move forward as best we can to do bigger and better things.”

» kmckinley@brandonsun.com

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