She came to San Jose alone from the Philippines in 2016, expecting to be connected with a decent job and living arrangements so she could send money back home. Instead, what she encountered was a nightmare.
The Filipino woman, who was in her 60s at the time, became a live-in caretaker at a residential care home for elderly people. She asked for anonymity to protect her privacy. The woman was forced to work around the clock and was never paid overtime. She could not use the facility’s phone and the owner held onto her passport. He also made advances toward her. The woman felt trapped and lived in fear. If she left, she’d become homeless and have no income.
“I (didn’t) know where to go and who to ask (for help),” she told the San José Spotlight. “He (took) advantage of me.”
The county is now working on prosecuting residential care homeowners for wage theft. It’s also forming an advisory council comprised of workers, adult care homeowners, advocates and government agencies to press for more accountability and better working conditions.
“We think it’s really important to have an advisory council with oversight,” said lawyer and San José Spotlight columnist Ruth Silver-Taube, who helped conduct the wage theft study. “(Workers) can bring problems (to the advisory council), and they can brainstorm with stakeholders about how to make the care homes more responsive.”
Many residential care facilities in Santa Clara County and across the country exploit their caretakers. A 2021 Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition study revealed 1,628 wage theft cases in the county’s residential care industry affecting 3,474 employees. Caregivers have lost in total more than $15 million in unpaid wages.
Residential care facilities are licensed, private homes with usually six beds, which provide 24-hour care and assistance with daily living, including help with medications, showering, eating or using the restroom. Caretakers often live in these residential homes, but some end up sleeping on the couch, floor, garage or even on the same bed as the person they are caretaking, according to a Pilipino Association of Workers and Immigrants (PAWIS) survey.
There are two types of facilities: adult residential care facilities for developmentally disabled adults and residential care facilities for the elderly, for people 60 and older. There are around 700 of these homes in the county, according to PAWIS, and 7,800 residential care facilities in California.
These facilities receive their licenses from the Department of Social Services (DSS) to ensure some standards of care, but Silver-Taube said there is a lack of oversight. There are no staffing ratios for residential care facilities for the elderly other than minimal night shift staffing. This can lead to caretakers being overworked and overwhelmed.
Furthermore, DSS doesn’t request payroll records to check whether the owner is giving accurate information on how many people work there, leading some to falsify information, according to a PAWIS report. At one point, the Filipino lady, was the only worker for six adults who had dementia. She started her day at 5 a.m. to prepare breakfast, clean the house, do the laundry, help residents with their showers and make lunch and dinner. She didn’t stop until 9 p.m. She hardly slept at night, waking up constantly whenever residents needed help and worked seven days a week with no overtime pay.
“It’s one of the industries where there’s an extreme amount (of wage theft), and there’s really no consequences,” Silver-Taube told San José Spotlight.
California law prohibits care homeowners from doing business in the state if they don’t pay wage theft judgments, but care homes have continued to operate, Taube said.
The county plans to create a dashboard of all unpaid judgements across industries on the county Office of Labor Standards Enforcement website for greater public awareness and accountability by next June.
After 13 months of working and living at the residential care home, the Filipino woman was able to get out. PAWIS members helped her find another job and provided education about her rights. Now she supports others who are trapped in the industry.
“I feel like I’m now free. I know my rights,” she said. “That’s why I’m really eager to help.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
