As worker-centered businesses, home care cooperatives prioritize improved working conditions including better training, higher wages, and job supports, resulting in increased worker satisfaction, decreased turn over, and ultimately higher quality, consistent care for care recipients.
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For far too long, America’s home care workforce has been undervalued and overlooked. Despite exponentially growing demand for in-home care, home-based caregivers remain one of the lowest-paid workforces in the economy. Made up primarily of low-wage women, women of color, and immigrants, this is no accident. Structural systems of racism, sexism, and classism plague the industry, resulting in poor job quality and a general lack of respect and recognition of home care workers' critical role in healthcare and in the economy at large. The impact is an overloaded workforce struggling to meet its basic needs, alongside a crisis-level caregiver shortage that leaves thousands of seniors and people with disabilities without critical care.
Why Home Care Matters: Everyday in the U.S over 11,000 people turn 65, and by 2050 seniors will represent 20% of the U.S population (U.S Census). 75% of seniors wish to age at home (AARP)The home care workforce is one of the fastest growing occupations in the U.S.representing 2.9 million workers. 87% of home care workers are women, people of color (67%) and immigrants (32%). Home care workers are among the lowest paid in the economy, earning median wages of only $16.13 per hour or less than $22,000 per year. As a result 40% of home care workers live in low income households. As a result of low wages and poor job quality, turnover in the home care industry is extremely high at 79% annually, and there are not enough workers to meet the growing demand leaving many seniors and people with disabilities without needed care.
“From the beginning, we set out to be a ‘different’ type of home care company. The type of company that valued the home care worker and understood that to deliver quality care we needed to create quality jobs for our workforce. More than 30 years later, our investment in our workforce continues to fuel our field-leading outcomes and has made CHCA the largest worker-owned cooperative in the country.”
Together with our partners, ICA strives to support a robust ecosystem of business support, training, and resources. This fertile ground helps existing cooperatives thrive, provides support to new cooperatives in their early developments, and helps the home care cooperative field grow.
HOME CARE INITIATIVE
Together with the Cooperative Development Foundation and other key partners engaged in the Homecare Cooperative Initiative—a national consortium of organizations invested in growing the home care cooperative sector—ICA is working to build a robust ecosystem of business support, training, and resources. This fertile ground helps existing cooperatives thrive, provides support to new cooperatives in their early developments, and helps the home care cooperative field grow. Key initiatives include the annual National Home Care Cooperative Conference, the bi-monthly technical assistance and peer exchange call, direct technical assistance to home care cooperatives across the country, and the development of supportive tools and resources. From start-up assistance to thought leadership on sector scale strategy, ICA’s work touches every stage of the home care cooperative life cycle.
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We have three goals for transformative impact in the home care industry:
Contact us to learn more about ICA's expertise in the home care sector.Provide business tools and supports to ensure the financial and operational sustainability of new and existing home care cooperatives, and position them for growth.
Grow the sector through expanded industry networks, group purchasing, and by transitioning traditionally structured home care businesses into worker cooperatives.
With scale, home care cooperatives and the organizations and institutions that support them can push for policy change that addresses our nation’s systemic underinvestment in home care.
In addition to maximizing profit, many exiting home care business owners want to preserve their legacy and ensure their business continues serving the community long after they sell. Selling to employees can achieve these goals while improving recruitment & retention, increasing staff compensation, and engagement in the business. ICA is a national leader in employee ownership transfers. Contact us to receive a free consultation and explore whether a conversion to employee ownership is right for you and your business.
ICA develops tools and resources to support the financial and operational success of home care cooperatives.
Have questions about employee ownership or cooperative development? Whether you're exploring a business transition, starting a new cooperative, or seeking tailored solutions to strengthen your industry, our team is here to help. Let us guide you toward a more equitable and resilient future for your business and community.
