Does pay reflect merit?

Although news events like workers’ walk-offs at fast food restaurants in major cities already had me asking this question, personal events in the past week really brought it home.

Late on Mother’s Day, my father-in-law finally succumbed to a rare neurological condition called progressive supernuclear palsy (PSP). Thanks to the love of his wife and kids, a solid medical team and home healthcare workers, he was able to die peacefully, without much pain, at home.

Two days afterwards, as we made plans to join the family in Illinois, my mother-in-law related over the phone an item on her memorial planning to-do list that brought this question back. She was taking a thank-you card and monetary gift to their home health aide, a young woman with a child. Every weekday morning, she came to help my mother-in-law prepare Dean for the day. And in her efforts to care for the caregiver, she frequently shooed Shirley out of the house to take a break.

But as Shirley pointed out, the pay was minimal. “She relied on us for her income,” Shirley said about her errand. She wanted to be sure Addie was taken care of, too.

Why does the pay of home and other health care workers not reflect the importance of caring for our loved ones? Does that work not merit a living wage?

I experienced this vital work 14 years ago here in Montgomery County with my own parents. Hospice workers helped my siblings and I care for our parents at home, allowing them the dignity and peace of dying in the place they loved.

And I know people in care centers and those who work to care for them. It’s vital work. Yet these workers struggle to pay their bills. Why doesn’t their pay reflect the critical importance of what they do?

In one of my son’s many organizing jobs (part of a continuing search for stable full-time employment after college), he spent several weeks helping the Service Employees International Union contact home healthcare workers in the Twin Cities. The goal was to organize these workers to bargain for better pay and benefits. Shouldn’t the work merit better pay?

Coincidentally, a Facebook infographic popped up last week highlighting the pay of state employees. It noted the highest paid state employees were likely college sport coaches. Iowa reflects this trend, as outlined by the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s post on the Iowa State Employee Salary Database. “Iowa Football Coach Kirk Ferentz remained the state’s highest paid employee last year . . . ”

Do we really value sports more than care of each other? What about other types of work?

For example, financial executives at some of the Wall Street firms bailed out by our government have continued paying executive bonuses and bloated salaries. In any other industry, they’d be out of jobs.

If worker pay is to reflect merit (and our values), shouldn’t we demand a living wage for all workers?