Nursing home workers demanding a living wage

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

@anabottary

Manuella Suggs has been a certified nursing assistant in Rhode Island for twelve years. She says caring for the elderly is a rewarding, but tough job.
 
"We take care of the patience’s. We give them showers, feed them, dress them, make sure they are safe. We do everything we need to do to help them," says Suggs.
 
Suggs feels the wages she currently receives does not coincide with her daily duties.
 
"Right now I am making like 13 and change an hour. It’s not enough, because I have 4 kids. I have another part time job to help me pay the bills, I have to pay the mortgage, taxes, the gas bill, the food. It is not enough."

Suggs along with more than 75 other nursing home workers, rallied at the Rhode Island state house Wednesday, demanding an increase in wages to $15 an hour.
 
"As the economy has improved, we’ve seen vacancies. We don’t want to get into a situation where we don’t have enough staff, to care for the elderly in our nursing homes,"says Vice President of the 1199 SEIU New England.
 
Senator Gayle Goldin and Representative Scott Slater are supporting it by introducing a bill. This comes after workers in other states, such as New York, recently won a phased in $15 dollar an hour minimum wage. We did reach out to the state finance committee to see if this wage increase is possible, a spokesman responded in part: To transform medicaid, we need to invest in home and community based care. Governor Gina Raimondo has given medicaid home care workers a 7 percent raise, after not getting a raise since 2008. The governor also increased the minimum wage last year, and has proposed raising the wage again this year.

(c)WLNE-TV 2016