PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria area home care workers are wanting a pay raise, and want state legislators to help them get it.
Members of SEIU Healthcare Illinois rallied in front of the IDHS Peoria Family Community Resource Center on Thursday morning. Around ten members attended the rally.
One sign at the rally called Amazon found Jeff Bezos a “super villain”, while another sign carried the phrase “Workers Over Billionaires” surrounding a headshot of Elon Musk.
The workers urged state legislators for a $2/hour pay increase before the end of the spring session next weekend, which would bring home care worker rates to $20-22/hour. To fund that, the workers demanded the closing of tax loopholes and a tax on digital ads, which SEIU estimates could raise around $4 billion a year.
“Why are we always fighting over what teachers and providers and health care providers make when there’s all this money up there?” said SEIU organizer George Hemberger. “What’s fair is ‘Hey come on, let’s pay your taxes.’ Pay your fair share of taxes.”
One of the home care workers who spoke at the rally was Tonja Evans, who works as a personal assistant. Her roles include being with clients or families and assisting them with tasks that they cannot do throughout the day.
Evans says getting a pay increase would help the workers manage inflation and rising costs easier, adding it would be a “sad day” if they could not reach their clients.
“Right now, we havin’ problems with gas. We havin’ problems with even just getting to clients,” Evans said.
Evans says her union has been fighting for the $2/hour pay increase for years. She is confident that things would work out in the end, and is even hopeful that a billionaire could consider funding their pay increase.
