$15 minimum wage will have big impact on senior care

By Rob Roper

Everyone understands that raising the minimum wage from today’s rate of $10.78 to $15 an hour will have an inflationary effect on the overall costs of goods and services. However, some sectors of the economy will be impacted more than others. Legal fees, for example, probably wouldn’t change much as a result of the new policy, but the home and health care of senior citizens could change a lot.

This week the family owner/operator of several senior citizen facilities testified before the House General Committee about what the wage increase would do to their businesses and their customers:

“If S.23 is enacted, the annual budget impact on our facilities will be:

  • In 2020: $212,641 in the first year (plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp)
  • In 2021: $246,525 for a cumulative impact of $459,167 (plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp)
  • In 2022: $297,769 for a cumulative impact of $756,936 (plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp)
  • In 2023: $363,319 for a cumulative impact of $1,120,255 (plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp)
  • In 2024: $390,080 for a cumulative impact of $1,510,334 (plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp)

Given that these care facilities are subject to state staffing requirements that dictate the number of licensed employees we have per bed, cutting hours or employees to meet the budget is not an option. An additional problem is that Medicare and Medicaid provide a majority of the revenue into the businesses, and these payments are “fixed” and not set to increase at a rate that would cover the wage increase.

So, where’s this money going to come from? The folks who are dependent upon nursing home care — often people living on fixed incomes themselves — or their families. If the Legislature decides to cover these costs through increased Medicaid payments, the taxpayer will be on the hook. The other alternative is that these facilities and others like the close, leaving seniors out in the cold.

Rob Roper is president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Jamain

20 thoughts on “$15 minimum wage will have big impact on senior care

  1. just wait , the kids won’t even bother trying to get ahead because the national wage coming in the next 20 years will take care of them . might as well get hooked on something and just sit back and wait for the free cash 🙁 no reason to learn a trade , or excel , you won’t even need to participate for your trophy soon , just sign up for it .
    when you start getting rewarded for bad choices by getting $15 or $20 an hour , just realize you still won’t be able to afford anything because the skilled and educated people will be getting paid $80-$150 an hour and that will all be passed on through inflation . you think its expensive now , hahaha

    • I respectfully disagree—
      why get up and go to work for 15$/hr when you can not work and get close to same AND free healthcare ?
      Living off the system is a pretty good gig – as a matter of fact it’s probably one of the only things drawing people to come
      to the state. It’s the only population growth we seem to be able to get.

  2. Let families care for their elderly themselves.It’s dirty,heavy work,and very demanding.Nobody is going to do this for starvation wages.If you can’t afford care,care for them yourselves.You have no problem paying doctors or nurses.The scut work is just as important in patient survival.Pay your bills.

    • What you propose is exactly how it used to be when families still were. If you get Griffin’s book you may gain understanding of why we’re all so scattered these days — families and non-families — making it virtually impossible for family care of elders for the most of us.

      Because it occurs to me that you’re just here to vent (I note you ignored the postS re informational books) this finishes it for me. God help anyone needing to rely for care on someone with your resentful attitude.

  3. The state will have to build a H- – l of a lot of prisons to enforce policies. It should be a State trend and called revolt.

    • If enough people would read the book I linked to, such a revolt might just become reality. Most have zero concept of the why’s of money/economics, Keynesianism being so widely taught.

      But am not holding my breath waiting.

  4. The girl at the fast food gets to $15, Now she can finally afford day care.

    The girl at the Daycare gets $15, now she can finally treat herself to a retaurant.

    Inflation. One still can’t afford daycare,

    Inflation. The other still can’t afford the restaurant meal

    • Employers forced to lay off 20% of workers.
      Fast food is replaced by a Kiosk,
      and the Day care closes from fatal new regulations, and financial pressures.

    • The article is about senior care,not fast food.While I believe fast food isn’t so difficult,you have no idea how hard cleaning and caring for seniors is.I would say worth at least $20/hr.

      If you don’t like it,care for them yourselves.

  5. It takes at least $15/hr. to keep running transportation and a roof over your head.Slavery is over,stop trying to keep it alive.

  6. They have been into us for the last 15 years, we were a bit slow to react. Well as of next week we are going scouting for a new home. In all we are a group of 16 native vermonters saying goodbye. a few left last year already so our group now is actually 12. I cant wait.

      • Got flamethrower/tank driving/sniper training? Always looking for new thugs willing to suppress dissenting thoughts of liberty. Must lack conscience and possess willingness to murder and incinerate the innocent. You sound well qualified.

        • Just tired of generational theft.The very people that racked up $22 trillion and untold billions in unfunded pensions want their azzes wiped and bedpans changed for $12/Hr. no thanks

          • You appear to have a whole lot of anger and are venting toward those who have busted their humps for a lifetime to achieve what they have only to find government’s wasteful spending and socialist policies beginning to suck them dry.
            FYI, the very large majority of the national debt is the product of the activities of the un-federal Federal Reserve, which usurped “money issuing” powers from the U.S.Treasury via the bogus Federal Reserve Act hatched in 1913 at Jekyll Island S.C. Creation of the Income Tax and Infernal Revenue Service followed, which ensured the means of collecting tax to pay the interest on the “money” the Fed created to loan to the government when required to cover any deficit.

            The deficit, along with the income taxes to fund the interest, is what we are seeing today..It accrues as I sit here punching keys. At some point in the near future there will not be enough “money” to repay the debt owed to these banksters and the US will be in default.

            You’d do well to read the FREE book I linked to elsewhere, along with “The Creature From Jekyll Island”, G. Edward Griffin, for more understanding of just why this situation exists.

            As for paid panhandlers, those I have known did the work out of the empathy they felt knowing that one day it could be they having “their azzes wiped and bedpans changed”. You might well could develop some of that–or find a new line of work.

          • Ah Mr Red-fern, welcome to VT. See you brought your attitude with you, like most Flatlanders. People notice that Liberals have difficulty in smiling and having a positive attitude. Get out into nature and wipe that frown off your puss and be a happy boy. Welfare checks should be out this week.

  7. If the results of a policy are logically foreseeable it is reasonable to assume they are either intentional or considered by the promoters of the policy to be acceptable. The question is how does it benefit Vermont to motivate business and wealth to leave the state.

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