A hollow gesture

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors took the easy way out last week, cynically agreeing unanimously to require everyone connected to the county – except themselves – to comply with a living wage increase. Requiring county contractors and grant recipients to raise wages to $15 an hour was a fine thing to do, but exempting the county itself was disappointing, and turned the whole affair into an exercise in self-aggrandizement.
The impetus for proposing a living wage did not come from the county. It came from North Bay Jobs with Justice and other social equity advocates who were dismayed at the low wages and dismal benefits for more than 4,000 home health care workers, who currently earn $11.65 an hour for performing the most important and intimate tasks for the elderly and disabled.
County Supervisors are sitting on millions in unanticipated revenues as local sales and property taxes increase, and while we admit that they are under pressure to keep supporters happy, fill potholes and restore previously slashed budget items, refusing to recognize the basic human dignity of home health care workers is a sad breach of faith with the people who care for the most vulnerable among us.
We encourage social justice advocates not to give up and we call on our county supervisors to take another look at their priorities. Home health care workers save the county millions a year by helping people stay in their homes, and we find it disturbing that a county employee who fills a gaping pothole in a rural road makes a living wage and decent benefits, while a home health worker who cleans and dresses a gaping bedsore has to supplement their weekly food supply by going to the food pantry.
We are not suggesting that the county road crew isn’t deserving. We know they work hard, every day. We don’t want to bring some county workers down (although we believe the county is top-heavy in management). We want to see those with the lowest wages brought up. It’s the right thing to do.
– Ray Holley