Home and personal care workers for Medicaid personal care services programs earn considerably less than their counterparts who are direct support workers or work for home health agencies and assisted living facilities. Even with differences between different types of home care workers (and whether they work for private agencies or state personal care programs), there can be variation in hourly rates by state and county. One method of increasing wages and benefits of home care workers is by legislation.

In this report we focused on promising examples of state legislation seeking to specifically increase the hourly wages or benefits of home, direct or personal care workers. The final list of promising practices consists of 11 bills and 2 legislative appropriations (LA and WY) from 2001-2007. Seven of the 13 bills or legislative appropriations considered 'promising practices' (AK, DC, LA, MI, NH, NY 2001-02,WY) increased wages for workers and six (ME, MA, MT, NY 2007-08, WA 2006, WA 2004) related to collective bargaining agreements/insurance coverage.