ACTION ALERT: Cuomo: Include Increased Funding for Caregivers in Your Budget!

Please join the Tompkins County Workers’ Center (TCWC) and Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York, in urging Governor Cuomo to include critical funding needs in his thirty day amendments to his proposed Budget so that nonprofit caregivers can have their wages increased.

It is IMPERATIVE that nonprofit organizations including caregiving industries, such as child care; senior care; disability care, etc. be adequately funded by State and Federal sources through reimbursement rates.

Considering that these caregiving industries’ workers are more than 90% women, a State failure to fund livable wages for these workers also reinforces systemic under-payment for women who work. The minimum wage for Upstate New York is slated to increase to $12.50 per hour by the end of 2020, and the TCWC is campaigning for a minimum wage that is a living wage in Tompkins County. Governor Cuomo’s present proposed Budget DOES NOT include funding to pay for these scheduled minimum wage increases for swaths of the non-profit sector.

Please go to this link provided by Strong Nonprofits for New York to register your feelings about such increased funding for nonprofit industries to PAY their workers fairly and with a Living Wage. We ask you to do this by February 5th.

Simply add your organization, area, and populations served to the body of the email template provided and hit send! If that’s not information you have or is not applicable, please feel free to delete that section of the email, and send as is.

We are asking for $65 million for wage adjustments for human services workers; $23 million to fund the minimum wage increase for State contracts not yet adjusted to reflect the increased cost of service provision; and $100 million to support funding the Nonprofit Infrastructure Capital Investment Program (NICIP). Without this support, we will not be able to provide critical interventions and promote well-being for millions of New Yorkers in challenging times.

Please share with staff, clients, and supporters–the more voices we add the more likely we are to be heard!