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Cooperative Care: A worker-owned cooperative of caregivers |
Description |
Cooperative Care provides a comprehensive wage and benefit package to direct-care workers. Each worker member owns a share of the cooperative and has one vote. Workers share the cooperative's profits and sit on its board of directors, where they help direct company policy and strategic planning. |
Sponsoring Organization |
Cooperative Care Incorporated, a worker-owned co-operative based in Wautoma, WI. |
Setting |
Cooperative Care, which operates in Waushara, Marquette, and Green Lake counties in Wisconsin. |
Target Group |
Personal care workers and supportive home care attendants |
Start Date |
June 2001 |
Objectives |
- To offer high-quality employment to members
- To offer leadership opportunities to direct-care workers
- To offer personal care workers and home care attendants an opportunity to benefit from profit-sharing
- To provide high-quality services to clients
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Key Components |
Cooperative Care has an executive director and a five-member worker-owner board of directors, who are voted into office by caregivers.
The membership process is as follows:
- A worker fills out a job application. All worker-owners must be certified home health aides or nursing assistants and the cooperative does not provide training, so applicants must have state certification or be prepared to obtain it on their own.
- The executive director and a member of the board review the application, call references, and order a background check.
- Qualified applicants are invited to an informational meeting with the executive director and one or two members of the board of directors.
- The executive director and the board member(s) who reviewed the application decide whether to offer the applicant membership.
- If membership is granted, the new worker-owner pays a one-time $50 membership fee for a share in the coop.
Personal care workers start at $9.50 an hour and supportive home care workers at $7.50 an hour. Workers get a 25-cent raise after one year. A premium of $1.50 per shift is paid to workers who accept an assignment on short notice. Overtime and holidays are paid at time and a half. These wages are competitive with those of other area health care employers.
Workers request the number of hours they want. The RN supervisor or the business office manager schedules workers, taking into account people's needs for additional hours (to qualify for insurance, for example). However, there is no guarantee that the requested hours will be available.
Members are entitled to the following:
- Profit sharing. Each member's share is based on the number of hours worked during the past year. In 2001, $41,488 was distributed to 58 members.
- Differential pay for unscheduled work. Workers are paid extra for filling in when a colleague misses a scheduled shift.
- Paid travel time. Workers are reimbursed for time spent traveling between clients.
- A guaranteed minimum of one hour's pay. Workers earn an hour's pay for any assignments that last less than an hour.
- Nine paid holidays a year.
- Overtime pay.
- Paid vacation time. Full-time workers accrue 6.67 hours per month and part-time workers accrue 3.34 hours per month.
- Subsidized health insurance for those who work at least 30 hours a week. The company pays 75 percent of the premium for individual policies and 50 percent for family policies.
- Flexible benefit plan. Childcare costs, health care deductibles, and other out-of- pocket costs are paid with pre-tax dollars.
- Liability insurance.
- Worker's compensation.
- Opportunities for training. The cooperative subsidizes tuition for training that will help caregivers better serve their clients.
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Results, Outcomes, Evaluation |
The cooperative started with 63 caregivers in June 2001. During the following year, only two left, one due to disciplinary issues. One board member resigned because she was no longer interested in working as a PCA after her client moved into a nursing home.
The organizers believe that the cooperative is successful because it provides owners with stable wages and benefits and a voice in the running of the organization.
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Lessons Learned |
Members of a cooperative must share the work as well as the rewards. The board of directors must be strong, and a competent president or executive director is needed to head the organization. A cooperative of this size also requires two support staff. |
Costs and Funding |
Waushara County received a Community Links grant to explore the feasibility of forming a cooperative. A $125,000 loan from the state bank provided the start-up money, 20 percent of which was spent on capital expenditures. The rest covered payroll until the cooperative achieved adequate cash flow. The cooperative is now funded entirely by client payments (it has a contract with the county) and its $50 membership fees. |
Contact Information |
Kathie McGwin
Executive Director
Cooperative Care
P.O.B. 620
Wautoma, WI 54982
t: (920) 787-1886
e: mcgwin@co-opcare.com
Website: www.co-opcare.com
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Other Resources |
Cooperative Care: The Waushara model, a PowerPoint presentation created on February 12, 2001. |
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