Over 500 certified family homes for the handicapped and infirm in Idaho are in jeopardy – having some without staff

Over 500 certified family homes for the handicapped and infirm in Idaho are in jeopardy – having some now without staff.  

“On February 12, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13658, “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors,” to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for all workers on Federal construction and service contracts. The President took this executive action because raising wages will improve the quality and efficiency of services provided to the government. Boosting wages lowers turnover, increases morale, and will lead to higher productivity overall on Federal contracts. The Executive Order directed the Department of Labor to issue regulations to implement the new Federal contractor minimum wage. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by Secretary of Labor Tom Perez is an important milestone in raising the minimum wage for workers on Federal contracts.“ NPRM Executive Order 13658, Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors – Fact Sheet – U.S. Department of Labor — Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

There is a crisis coming. This may not look like much now, but after the first of the yr 2016 under Executive Order 13658 by the Obama administration:  http://www.dol.gov/whd/homecare/agencies-what-are-requirements.htm

Most are not for profits that are saying (to this writer) that they are “monitoring the situation.”

Let me be clear, in the state of Idaho we have over 500 homes for the handicapped that by state law are staffed by agencies created by Health and Welfare.  They now can not afford to staff those homes for the handicapped because of a federal labor law taking away an exemption for caregivers to work more the 40 hours a week  without pay of time and a half.Now on the face of it this seems to be no big deal but let me show you one case. Two family members take care of a handicapped adult 24/7 for minimum wage set by state law back yrs ago.

Now that that law has changed this and now anything over 40 hours must pay time and a half the agency has told this family they can no longer pay to render services to the client be cause they make no money in fact lose money to employ these family members any longer. So services will end as of the first of 2016.  This family has tried to find another agency with no luck.  As a matter of  fact the agencies are telling this family that there are group homes all over the state with no staff in them because they can not afford to pay the overtime and staff are leaving the agency.

Idaho Health and Welfare say this is not their problem,  it is an employers problem. Remember the state made the agency be there because they (the State) didn’t want caregivers to be employed by the state.

So I ask you.  These advocate agencies that are “monitoring the situation”  stand watching as the handicapped of the state are being pushed over the proverbial cliff into crisis and doing nothing to stop it right along with the Governor and the state legislature. No one is even talking about it.

And as this writer set down to write this  I got a call from another agency that can not  take this family’s case  and was told that there are new agencies starting up in Idaho hiring nothing but Syrian refugees to work with these homes so the state can get more Federal monies. At this point I can not know if this is true or not  BUT there needs to be an investigation for sure.   SO here we sit just like Germany pre-2nd-world-war and the first to go into camps will be the handicapped. So are you ready to be Good people that do nothing?  Allowing bad things to happen?  Or will you stand up for those who can not fight for themselves?

Extremely Concerned Idahoan

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