u/Sun-607

Hello! I have done in home health for about 3 and a half years for 2 companies in 3 stints. I have a really good track record and am highly requested in my area. I have worked every day since hire only missing 2 days due to getting pretty sick. In February when I was going through the hiring process, I was informed the baseline was 18.75/h. I requested 19 due to my good performance and prior experience in the field and it was accepted. For those who don't know much about the field, it is very difficult for male caretakers to get clients (especially in a smaller city like mine) in the first 3 months, I was constantly doing fills for clients who's caretakers were off for one thing or another and consistently had clients calling to request me back, however my supervisor would not schedule me for most of them again. My checks have been short and I have really been struggling to make ends meet consistently, but I assumed it was due to my lack of consistent clients.

Almost 2 months ago now, I got tired of getting 300ish a week when it should have been 500ish and called the office to check my hours. They said I had worked more hours than I had calculated (I did not have access to the website that showed me my pay stubs or information at this time) they told me my current pay was 18.75. I informed the lady at the office that my offer letter stated I was accepted for 19, so she went back to look at the logs. They had set my pay to 18.75 from the start.

Here is the kicker. In March, all caretakers got a .75 raise. That same day in the logs, my pay was adjusted to 19.50, then someone manually set it back down to 18.75. The lady in the office was pretty pissed for me and sent it to the branch manager.

I wait a week and send an email to follow up. Nothing changed. Send another follow up the next week, my pay gets set to 19 instead of the 19.50 it said I was supposed to be making. I email a follow up about this. No response. Wait another week and send yet another follow up to see what's going on and she still does not respond, so I take things to union. While on the phone with union rep, she told me I should have actually been making 19.75/h and she says she will get things taken care off.

2 weeks go by and my pay is still at 19, so I call my rep again. She informs me that according to corporate, they already gave me my back pay (.25) and as far as my raise, because I got hired on for the quarter extra, I am unable to receive any raises until (and this is shaky because the rep didn't even understand what it meant) "my compensation is aligned with other workers" or something along those lines.

I LOVE this job. The people (even when they pass me off) I love the field, I love what I do and I am very good at it. I really don't want to have to leave this job. The other company who does this kind of work is atrocious to work for (they were the first company in the field I worked for) i don't know what to do. The obvious answer is to change jobs, but this is the field I feel like I fit.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance!