In every state, including Arizona, the median wages for direct care workers are lower than those of competing occupations such as fast food or retail.
Lina Stepick is the Director of Research at PHI, a national nonprofit that studies this workforce. They said in Arizona, the median hourly wage for direct care workers in 2023 was $16.62.
“And the wage gap between what direct care workers were earning in Arizona and folks in similar or competitive occupations was $2.85 per hour,” they said.
As for why, it’s multifactorial. Some of it has to do with low Medicaid reimbursement rates.
“And then it's just reflective of the overall devaluing of this workforce that is majority women, disproportionately migrant workers, people of color,” Stepick said.
There is one fix on the horizon and that is the Medicaid Access Rule that requires that at least 80% of all Medicaid payments be spent on direct care worker pay.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct Stepick’s pronouns.
