In Carson City, Nevada, a home health worker was on the Capitol on Tuesday asking lawmakers for big pay increases, citing increasing demand as the state’s population grows rapidly.
This is the first time in two years. The 2023 campaign received a minimum of $16 wages for home caregivers employed by private institutions funded through Medicaid. Before that, their wages were packed between $10 and $12 an hour for over a decade.
“It was ridiculous,” says Regina Brown-Ross, a home care worker at SEIU Local 1107 and union organizer. “People can’t work for $12 an hour.”
In 2025, even a $16 hour per hour remains a struggle for many caregivers. Home care workers, mostly women and of color, often lack health insurance. Like other low-wage workers, they must compete with rising food and housing costs.
So they are asking for $20 an hour in hopes that lawmakers will approve the request as part of the state’s next budget bill.
Two years ago, a minimum wage for caregivers was defended by Democrats. The Democrats still controlled both rooms in the Nevada Legislature, but were eventually signed into law by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Today, workers also want the state to approve more compensation for their clients.
“A lot of clients – they don’t have enough time and need more help,” says Brown Ross.
This is also beneficial to caregivers. If you can be paid more time with each client, you don’t have to take on so many people from long drives between clients.
Increased wages resulted in lower sales
Their push for higher wages has highlighted the struggles that caregivers face across the country as demand for their service spikes.
There is already evidence that previous wage increases in Nevada, which came into effect in January 2024, reduced sales. Half of the state’s home care workers didn’t last a year in their role before their wages rose to $16. Four months after the new minimum came into effect, there was little revenue.
Since then, the ranks of home healthcare and SEIU Local 1107 have grown. Since 2023, more than 1,300 home care workers have voted for unions in 12 consecutive elections, adding muscle to their latest fight.
Crystal Ramirez from NPR
Irma Nunez, a longtime caregiver who joined the lobbying trip in 2023, says she had a receptive audience among state lawmakers at the time when she shared stories about helping patients ingest, feeding and going to the bathroom. The need for help in the home struck a chord.
“People have given us personal stories about their fathers, moms, grandparents and family,” she says. “They knew what we were talking about.”
To interact, Nunes picked up as many jobs as possible, took on multiple clients, drove from home, and worked here for a few hours, seven days a week.
The bumps she received from $11 to $16 an hour in January 2024 allowed her to slightly reduce her workload and take better care of her health. But $20 per hour offers her a better safety net, she says, allowing her to start saving a little for her retirement.
Crystal Ramirez from NPR
Clients also support higher wages
The promotion of higher caregivers wages was supported by elderly and people with disabilities who rely on care, like Nunes’ longtime client Thomas Doraa.
Dora, a high school science teacher, had been in a car accident 20 years ago, so he couldn’t use his legs. Since then he has helped him get out of bed, wash, dress him, get in a van and go to school.
That help isn’t always reliable. “We were either going back and forth between people or not showing up to get me to stand up. We wouldn’t go to school that day,” he says.
Then Nunes came. For the past 12 years she has been at his house every day, arriving at 4:30am, allowing Dora to go to school by 6am, an hour before the student arrives.
She returns in the afternoon to bring him back to his house and back to bed. “Without Irma, I wouldn’t be able to go to school or work,” Dora says.
“I always thought it was just crazy,” he says of caregivers’ wages. “They make that little bit of money because it’s what an important job.”
Crystal Ramirez from NPR
Deserves dignity in their own profession
After a decades-long career as a singer, Brown Ross began working as a caregiver, performing worldwide on solo shows and as a backup singer for Gladys Knight, Ray Charles and Smokey Robinson.
However, while touring in China in the early 2010s, she suffered from voice damage.
“I couldn’t sing my phrases. I didn’t have a note. It was the most devastating time for me,” she recalls.
She had to find a job and soon received a call. Her mother-in-law had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Deciding to keep her home, Brown Ross began caring for her, eventually becoming certified as a caregiver and formalizing the arrangement through a state program that allowed families to pay for their jobs. She was hired by an agency, paid a recurring fee, then paid $12 an hour.
“It was difficult for me to become a home care worker, from making money from working with Ray Charles and Gladys Knight,” says Brown Ross.
It wasn’t just a small wage. It was a lack of respect for caregivers and a lack of recognition of their work.
“They deserve dignity in their profession,” she says.
Brown Ross’ stepmother passed away in 2018. Since then, she has taken on other clients, including older cousins who fought in World War II, autistic teenagers and women with disabilities.
Crystal Ramirez from NPR
Recently, she began rehabilitating her voice and has returned to singing.
“It brought joy to the audience, took them on a journey and helped them feel better,” she says. “I bring the same premise to home care, helping them do things they can no longer do for themselves.”
Copyright 2025 NPR
