The worldwide population is aging faster these days than in the past. The World Health Organization says that one in six people will be 60 or older in five years. According to the latest data from the Commonwealth Fund, nearly 10 million elderly people in the U.S. living in their homes require care and help with daily activities such as bathing, cooking, and cleaning, and many of them are isolated and alone, a situation that has been identified as a serious health concern. Nearly five million people work as direct healthcare providers to the elderly, providing needed care and assistance while often mitigating their feelings of loneliness and isolation.
For many, that direct healthcare worker is a Latina. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Latinas comprise nearly 8% of the U.S. labor force but almost 25% of all home health aides. This means that a significant portion of Latinas in the labor market are performing an essential job in caring for the elderly, but that job pays low wages and contributes to perpetuating the Latino wealth gap.
Latina Direct Healthcare Workers
The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute says that the number of direct Latina healthcare workers grew by an astonishing 78% between 2005 and 2015 and continues to grow. The majority of these workers, 54%, were born in the U.S.; of those not born in the U.S., 22% are naturalized citizens, while 24% are not citizens. Latina healthcare workers tend to be less well-educated than non-Latinas in that job.
These workers are filling jobs whose growth is predicted to continue, and the demand for them is expected to outstrip supply. Direct healthcare work is where traditional economic theory predicts a steady and significant wage increase, which could mean an opportunity for workers in that labor sector to increase their income and ability to save and invest. However, despite demand consistently outpacing supply, wages for workers in these jobs have only minimally increased.
A study in the American Journal of Public Health found significant economic vulnerability among female healthcare workers in the U.S., especially those providing direct healthcare services. While the economic condition of all direct healthcare workers is tenuous, it is worse for Latinas than others. Researchers found that the median wage for direct healthcare workers is $11.35 per hour and that among those providing care to patients in their homes, the highest percentage living in poverty are Latinas – 22%, which is about 30% greater than for whites in the same job.
Why Latinas Continue To Work As Direct Healthcare Providers
Despite the low wages and grueling physical demands of direct healthcare work, many Latinas find these jobs essential and rewarding. In interviews with Latina direct healthcare workers across the country, many said caring for the elderly was central to their culture. Still, they were keenly aware that the pay for a job they liked was problematic.
One Latina in California, who did not provide her name for privacy reasons, said, “The people I care for are alone, and they need help. I do not understand why their families are not there to care for them and keep them company.” She described how she treats them as family because “That is what we do in our culture, we respect and care for the elderly, we don’t leave them alone.” She also said how much the elderly she cares for make her smile and teach her things. When asked if she liked her job, she said yes but wished to make more money to put aside for her son’s education.
A Latina direct healthcare worker in Florida who did not provide her name for privacy reasons told stories illustrating why she loved working with the elderly. Some of the stories she mentioned involved her elderly patients giving her advice. She reported that the advice was helpful, and she was grateful to have them as teachers. She also said she often brought her children to work with her. She did that because she wanted them to understand how important her work was and how proud she was to do it, but she also wanted them to learn the importance of respect for the elderly. She wanted them to understand that caring for people in need, especially as they age, is important. When asked why bringing her children to her job was necessary to teach those lessons, she asked, “Have you ever heard that actions speak louder than words? I want to show my children, not just tell them.”
Nonetheless, when asked about her wages, she said she couldn’t understand why caring for those in need, especially the elderly who have contributed so much to this country, did not pay better. She said she often worried she wouldn’t have enough money but thought her work was a “calling to help others.”
Going Forward
Several organizations (e.g., Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute) advocate for better wages and benefits for all direct healthcare workers. Policies centering on unionization, guaranteed benefit packages, and career mobility opportunities are proposed—and sometimes implemented—and are economically complex. Finding a solution that increases wages will help individual workers and will likely increase the number of people willing to do these jobs.
Given the essential role direct healthcare workers play in ensuring that the elderly can age in place and, in many cases, ward off loneliness and isolation, wages that allow these workers, nearly all of them women, to not live in poverty make economic sense. For Latinas, higher wages mean they can stay in a rewarding job while increasing their opportunities to save money. This means they have a realistic chance to accumulate wealth, allowing them to take a small step toward bridging the wealth gap.
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