Workers who provide direct care for people with developmental disabilities are calling for an increase in what the state pays for their services.
AFSCME represents direct support personnel, or DSPs, who provide those services to more than 22,000 people with disabilities across the state; the union says low pay is contributing to high turnover.
Under current state law, agencies that hire DSPs to provide those services are reimbursed at a rate of $17 an hour – but the law does not require all of that funding to go directly to workers, so many employees make just above minimum wage.
AFSCME is calling for passage of a bill that would boost that reimbursement by $4 an hour – and would require all of that additional funding to be passed through directly to the DSPs.
