- Published: Friday, March 11, 2022 08:33 AM
SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Christopher Belt (D-Swansea) is supporting measures to ensure that Direct Support Personnel are fairly compensated for the assistance they provide to individuals with developmental disabilities.
“Support workers are essential workers,” Belt said. “These individuals care for residents who rely on them to do basic day-to-day tasks that many of us do without thinking. It’s vital that these workers are taken care of and paid a fair wage.”
DSPs are vital in community residential settings, where they help residents with daily personal care like eating and hygiene as well as teaching life skills and attending to complex medical needs. While funding for these services has increased over recent years, starting wages remain barely above minimum wage, and vacancies remain high. This disparity is because the state does not always require community agencies to pass wage increases through to the workers.
Belt joined State Senators Cristina Pacione-Zayas (D-Chicago) and Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) in a press conference Wednesday announcing legislation to raise worker wages. Senate Bill 3607 would raise the reimbursement rate for DSPs by $3.50 an hour to ensure these employees are the ones seeing a wage increase.
Read more: Belt supports measures to raise wages for Direct Support Personnel