California is in a healthcare workforce crisis. There are not enough healthcare workers for our increasingly diverse, growing, and aging population. To aid with recruitment and retention, a proposed law, Senate Bill 525, introduced by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, would establish a $25 minimum wage for California’s healthcare workers by the year 2025.
Sounds great, right? Pay workers more and the crisis will go away. Without sustainable funding to offset these costs, however, the legislation will worsen the crisis for safety net providers in under-resourced communities. California’s community health centers, which serve nearly one in five Californians, will have to resort to cost-cutting measures, including layoffs and closures.
Nonprofit health centers – mission-driven organizations that serve all, regardless of ability to pay – want to raise wages for staff, but we need help. If the state doesn’t chip in to help pay for the mandate, 7.7 million Californians who rely on health centers will pay.
In Los Angeles County, 1.89 million people get their care at community health centers, which operate on razor thin margins. An unfunded $25 minimum wage mandate would further weaken health centers’ financial viability.
El Proyecto del Barrio, Inc. is a health center serving the San Fernando Valley for more than 50 years and San Gabriel Valley for over 20 years. Patients come to El Proyecto for primary care, dental, behavioral health and substance use disorder services,...
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