Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D- TX) and Jan Schakowsky  (D-IL) stood alongside union leaders and nursing workers Thursday at a press conference calling for a $25 minimum wage, federal minimum staffing standards and unions for all nursing home workers. The media event followed the Care Can’t Wait Summit held in the nation’s capital on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The summit was organized by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, SEIU, AFL-CIO, AFT, AFSCME, Community Change, MomsRising, Care in Action and Care Can’t Wait.

Doggett said that there isn’t a shortage of workers willing to work in nursing homes, but “there aren’t enough people willing to do the job if they don’t get paid and if they don’t have working conditions that allow them to provide the kind of care you want to provide. …I believe that the best way to get more workers engaged in the care of our most vulnerable citizens is to pay reasonable wages and half staffing.”

The congressman said that although he agrees with President Biden’s State of the Union address sentiment that minimum staffing standards are needed for nursing homes, he does not believe in minimum staffing regulations that are standards “in name only.” 

Schakowsky added: “We need to make sure that the staffing ratios do what you need to save the lives of people in nursing homes. It is time for a dramatic change.”

If a first-ever federal nursing home staffing mandate requires 4.1 staff hours per resident day, according to a report issued Dec. 15 by accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen on behalf of the American Health Care Association, then more than 191,000 nurses and nurse aides would be needed at an annual cost of $11.3 billion. That amount represents an increase from the firm’s original estimates in July of 187,000 caregivers and a yearly cost of $10 billion. The December report used updated Payroll Based Journal and Medicare data.

At the time, AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson said that the report “once again highlights how our nation’s policymakers should be investing in our long-term caregivers, not mandating quotas.”

An executive order announced Tuesday by Biden in part calls for expanding the as-yet detailed nursing home staffing mandate and tying Medicare payments to nursing home staff retention. The sentiment is well and good, provider groups say, but it is not enough. 

“Turnover metrics are important, but we need significant, meaningful aid to help address the root causes of turnover and offer more competitive, good-paying jobs,” Holly Harmon, senior vice president of quality, regulatory and clinical services at AHCA and the National Center for Assisted Living, said Tuesday.

LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan, who attended the president’s speech, said the announcement indicates that the federal government has been listening to long-term care industry advocates but that the order is “still getting it wrong on nursing homes” and “bolsters the home care workforce while punishing nursing home providers for shortages.”

Schakowsky led the charge Thursday for a $25 minimum wage for direct care workers. In general, 27 states rang in 2023 with increases or planned increases to their minimum wage rate. At the high end, the minimum wage was set to reach or exceed $15 an hour in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington and parts of New York.