ABQjournal: Firms Seek Revision In Living Wage By Laura Banish, Journal Staff Writer

Hundreds of people in Santa Fe County could lose their home health care services because of the city of Santa Fe’s “living wage” ordinance, according to two local home health care providers who are asking the city for an exemption to the city-mandated minimum wage.

Businesses with 25 or more employees must pay workers at least $8.50 per hour. The only exemption is nonprofit organizations whose primary source of funds comes from Medicaid waivers.

The two home health care providers, which are for-profit businesses, would like to see the word “nonprofit” struck from the ordinance so the exemption includes all businesses that receive their primary source of funds from Medicaid. The two companies say for-profit providers account for 90 percent of home health care services in Santa Fe County.

Representatives from Heritage Home Healthcare and Professional Home Health Care said they are losing between 7 cents and 39 cents per hour at the living wage hourly rate of $8.50 and will lose between $1.43 and $1.69 per hour once the living wage rate rises to $9.50 per hour in January 2006.

Heritage Home Healthcare president Lee Trainor told the city Finance Committee on Tuesday that he is ready to tell the state in August that his company will no longer be able to provide home health care services such as bathing and food preparation to roughly 200 patients if the exemption is not approved.

“We’ve been busting our butts to keep these patients cared for so they can continue living in their homes, but we just can’t continue to do it if something doesn’t give,” Trainor said later.

Professional Home Health Care director of operations Kevin Enslin said his company would also have to discontinue home care services to a similar number of people. His company anticipates losing $67,600 per month once the living wage increases in 2006.

I have two thoughts on this. First, isn’t a willingness to bathe a strange worth more than $6 per hour? Don’t these workers deserve a living wage?

Second, how the hell are these two companies making a profit now if they will lose so much money through the increase — are they that unprofitable already?

By 2006, PHHC expects to lose $67,600 per month. That’s an impressive figure. But it means nothing without some indication of their other costs and their actual net. Sure, as the owner or stockholder in that company, I don’t want to lose any money. But, should the owner and stockholders prosper if they cannot pay people a fair wage? And “fair” is not defined as it so often has been by what you can get away with paying. Fair means people who work for you can actually live on what you pay them. mjh