EDITORIAL: Improve pay for support professionals
Pennsylvania law requires the state government to fund services for people with intellectual disabilities and autism, along with a moral obligation to help provide for some of its most vulnerable citizens.
It’s failing on both scores. At the same time that the state government has more than $5 billion in its Rainy Day Fund and an anticipated $6 billion surplus by the June 30 close of this fiscal year, more than 12,000 people languish on a waiting list for intellectual disability and autism services. More than 5,000 of those people qualify for what the state itself classifies as “emergency services.”
The Rainy Day Fund is meant to cover budget shortfalls, and it’s raining hard for intellectual disability and autism service providers.
Underlying the waiting list is a major shortfall in the number of direct support professionals who provide individual and group care for people with intellectual disabilities and autism. Statewide, according to the Provider Alliance that represents support agencies, the field has a 37% annual turnover rate, a current 24% vacancy rate and 15,000 open positions.
The jobs are emotionally and often physically demanding. But providers can’t compete for workers with market-based wages for health care because wage rates are tied to state reimbursements. The average pay for a direct support professional is $16.72 an hour, for which the state supplies $14.25.
That alone explains the turnover and vacancy rates. It takes an extraordinary level of commitment to remain in the direct support role when comparable or better pay readily is available for much less-demanding work.
The providers have asked the state to increase the appropriation for direct support professional wages by $430 million. With a match from the federal government, that would enable the providers to increase wages to about $20 an hour.
Some state lawmakers often complain about wasteful spending, but this is a case of their own wasteful hoarding. Rather than squirreling away taxpayers’ money, except for their own guaranteed annual pay increases that are tied to inflation, lawmakers should ensure that it is spent on crucial services that the government exists to provide.