The Senate Aging Committee held a hearing this morning, "The Long-Term Care Workforce: Addressing Shortages and Improving the Profession." The hearing focused on workforce issues across long-term care settings and served as a platform for Committee Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA) to promote S. 4120, the “Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act,” which he introduced yesterday with Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
The Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act includes substantial new federal funding for workforce development programs, including grants, tax credits, apprenticeships, childcare, and student loan payment assistance; it also includes several labor programs long sought by Democrats, including mandatory leave, classification of workers, workers compensation, and overtime. Along with Casey, Kaine, and Baldwin, 18 other senators have also cosponsored the bill. A House companion, H.R. 7994, is led by Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI).
Argentum released a statement today in response to the new legislation, sharing our appreciation for recognizing the current workforce shortage and introducing legislation to provide additional resources to address it. We will thoroughly analyze the legislation and its potential impacts on the senior living industry to ensure that it will uphold the highest standards of care and support for older adults, while also addressing the workforce challenges facing our communities.
Argentum has been working with Senator Casey, the Aging Committee, and lawmakers who serve on the Committee to share our priorities on the workforce needs specific to senior living communities, including the SENIOR Act, which calls for redirecting federal workforce funding to meet the long-term care workforce shortages.
Today's hearing was focused broadly on workforce needs in long-term care, including care for disabled individuals. Statements and questions relating to senior care tended to focus on skilled nursing facilities, rather than assisted living communities.
Brooke Vogleman, a Licensed Practical Nurse at TLC Management in Huntington, Indiana, testified on the staffing shortages and the need to recruit and retain more qualified workers through "targeted investments, not blanket mandates." Vogelman added, that "staffing mandates will force facilities to depend more on expensive staffing agencies. Personally, I’m concerned they will actually increase staff burnout, as current caregivers will be stretched thin and working longer hours in order to comply with these impossible standards."
Senator Casey called attention to the median wage for direct care workers of roughly $15 dollars an hour, "well below what is paid for warehouse and convenience store jobs." Argentum recently released a report on wage increases in senior living as compared to the private sector, which found that senior living hourly wages increased by 30.9% in the five-year period studied (2019-2023), while in the same period, private sector hourly wages increased, on average, by just 24.4%, with senior living hourly wage increases outpacing the private sector in four-of-five years. Notably, wages for lead certified nurse assistants grew the most, by 49.2%, on average, over five years.
In related workforce news today, the White House Office of Management and Budget cleared two pending rules, which will now be expected to be published imminently. The rules are the Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services, which includes the proposal to require 80% of state Medicaid payments go toward worker compensation, and the Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting, which does not directly impact assisted living but would have downstream impacts for long-term care settings competing for the same limited pool of workers.
