Sweet unveils plan to lift wages for care providers
U.S. Senate candidate Betsy Sweet has rolled out a new plan to raise wages for direct care providers across the nation by guaranteeing basic labor rights to workers who care for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Dubbed the Francis Perkins Act after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary and who has family ties to Maine, the proposal would cover workers whose jobs are supported all or in part by Medicaid or Medicare.
In a Facebook video announcing the proposal, Sweet, who is running for the Democratic nomination to unseat Senator Susan Collins, said that by leveraging federal money “we will be able to move an entire class of workers into the middle class and take care of the people who need services the most. It’s a win-win situation.”
The legislation would extend the protections guaranteed under the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act, which required fair wages, essential benefits, and overtime pay for workers on all federally-funded construction projects.
Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/sweet-unveils-plan-to-lift-wages-for-care-providers/