We all deserve the choice of aging at home with dignity.

Angela Engram is a home care worker from Pittsburgh. From cooking meals, to dispensing correct medication, to cleaning clothes and offering companionship, Angela is more than a caregiver, she is a lifeline for her care recipient, Linda Stokes.

Last year, I walked a day in the shoes of Angela and got to know Linda. I helped to put on her compression socks, observed while Angela cleaned the catheter Linda uses overnight, made her bed, braided her hair ahead of the Friday night church service they attend together, and prepared her medication.

But too many residents like Linda cannot get care because there simply aren’t enough people willing to work for low wages with no benefits. There is currently only one home care worker for every six people who want and need to have care inside their own homes.

There are more than 200,000 home care workers in the state — one of the state’s largest workforces — who are overwhelmingly women, disproportionately people of color. Angela works more than 50 hours a week but receives no overtime pay. She earns $13.53 an hour as part of the state’s Participant Directed Services program.

Low wages mean that Angela often has to choose between paying for gas and her electricity bill. She does not have access to affordable health insurance. In order to put food on her own table, she goes to a local food bank. These impacts of low-wage work result in increased stress levels and high blood pressure. When she goes to the grocery store she wants to fill her cart with healthy and fresh foods — like grapes or low-fat yogurt — which would help lower her blood pressure, but the prices are out of reach. She does not qualify for SNAP benefits.

Angela Engram braids Linda Stokes’ hair to prepare her for the Friday night church service they attend together. (Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Union Progress)

Regardless of these obstacles, Angela has been on the front line advocating for a better home care system that would result in quality care and increased availability of caregivers for people like Linda.

Workers are renewing the call to raise their wages to $20 this year. That is why Angela and hundreds of home care workers will join a virtual statewide rally to raise wages on Monday, in advance of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget address the following day.

Last year I introduced a bill with my colleague in the state Legislature, state Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Cecil, that aims to address the home care workforce shortage. The bill received bipartisan support.

As we approach budget season, when I join my colleagues in the state House to decide where Pennsylvanians’ tax dollars are spent, participant-directed home care is a smart investment that reduces state costs while boosting the economy. When those who need care choose participant-directed home care, every state dollar invested goes directly to care.

Linda calls herself the comeback kid. She’s had two strokes, two hip replacements, and she is a throat cancer survivor. It makes a huge difference to her continued healing that she is able to spend her days in her familiar home, with a caregiver she can trust.

Home care workers sustain lives. They are skilled, professional health care workers, just like hospital workers and nursing home workers.

Now is the time to support all home care workers by rededicating ourselves to offering them a livable wage now. I am hopeful we can make these critical care jobs sustainable for years to come.

Angela told me: “You cannot do this work without feeling it in your heart. It requires unlimited and unconditional compassion, love for the work, patience, grace and selflessness.”

I hope there is someone like Angela we all can turn to when we need in-home care services.

State Rep. Jessica Benham

State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, has served in the state legislature since 2021 and is an advocate for health care, education and workers' rights. She lives in the Southside Slopes neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Email her at RepBenham@pahouse.net.

State Rep. Jessica Benham

State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, has served in the state legislature since 2021 and is an advocate for health care, education and workers' rights. She lives in the Southside Slopes neighborhood...