Legislative Mandated Study Exposes Unfairness of DD Waiver Policies of Lujan Grisham Administration – Part One.

Study Exposes Poor Pay for Direct Service Workers

According to a recently released study (mandated by a new state law), there are more than 8,500 Direct Support Professional (DSP’s) workers who provide human to human, necessary, and life-affirming personal care to fellow New Mexicans with disabilities – and the vast majority of these workers get paid less than a “living wage.”

These workers are barely surviving on their state authorized pay, and many have no benefits, and no workers compensation protections.

Many of these workers have been illegally misclassified as “independent contractors” instead of employees, so that the employer does not have to pay them overtime rates for hours worked over 40 hours in a week, nor provide employer contributions for other requirements under federal law.

The state of New Mexico, through at least the last two administrations, has condoned this practice of misclassification by “looking the other way” and paying de facto below market rates to the companies the state contracts with to hire direct care professionals.

The Candle reported last year, about this misclassification practice and a related federal lawsuit in New Mexico seeking repayment for workers of money the state stood by and watched being withheld illegally.

That lawsuit was recently settled, with workers being awarded about $1.5 million in overtime pay.

Secretaries and senior administrators of the Health Care Authority, the Department of Workforce Solutions and the Department of Health are clearly aware of the misclassification of workers – yet have done nothing to date.

(In an article to be released before both the Legislative Finance Committee and the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee meet next week, The Candle will be exposing this underhanded and duplicitous practice of condoning the misclassification of workers by high officials in the state government so they can go cheap in paying for needed care – despite their claims they want to provide the best care possible to the vulnerable population they serve.)

The Candle is in the middle of mining the data released by that study – which is the first of what is now required to be an annual gathering of data regarding the DSP workforce.

Despite having the ability to gather this information for almost 14 years, both the administrations of former Governor Susana Martinez and the current Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham never sought to pull the data together to make sure that workers were being paid fairly and sufficiently.

It took legislation sponsored in 2023, by Representatives Liz Thomson and Kathleen Cates, along with Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, to force the current Governor and her administration to get the numbers which were released in the first report early last month.

Most of these workers are women, with many of them being single mothers trying to survive and provide a good life for their kids.

More than 75% of Direct Service Workers Earn Less than New Mexico’s Living Wage.

For individuals, and families, to survive economically, their households need a reasonable income – and organizations have developed what are known as living wage calculators.

Such organizations, define a living wage as the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2080 hours per year.

According to the “Living Wage Calculation for New Mexico,” developed and regularly updated by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and the Living Wage Institute, a worker with no children needs to make at least $20.10/hour.

That hourly wage needs to be $34.83/hour for a worker with just one child.

The study that was recently released in response to the legislature’s mandate, reveals that of the 8,576 identified in its survey, more than 6,800 direct service workers made less than the calculated living wage.

The Importance of Direct Service Workers to Developmentally Disabled New Mexicans

Since March of 2023, when the horrific abuse that likely led to Mary Melero’s death was revealed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, The Candle has reported on the failures of the state government to match its stated concern for members of the developmentally disabled community with actual policy and resources.

The Health Care Authority’s Developmental Disabilities Supports Division describes its mission:

“To serve those with intellectual and developmental disabilities by providing a comprehensive system of person-centered community supports so that individuals live the lives they prefer, where they are respected, empowered, and free from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.”

The agency also defines the job of a direct support professional (DSP), as “a non-administrative employee or subcontractor of a direct support provider agency.

“DSPs spend the majority of their working hours providing supportive services to individuals with developmental disabilities who live and work in the community.“

Yet these workers have seen no appreciable increase in pay since Governor Michele Lujan Grisham took office almost six years ago.

Further compounding the problem of recruitment and care: as the Governor touted her elimination of the Wait List of people needing services, she underfunded providers, resulting in the inability to recruit sufficient personnel to fill the jobs to serve the added clients.

NOTE: The Governor recently submitted a Special Appropriations Request of $46 Million to the Legislative Finance Committee. The description alongside the appropriation request states:

“63000 – Health Care Authority The Health Care Authority is requesting forty-six million dollars ($46,000,000) to support rate increases to the Developmental Disabilities Supports Division home and community-based services waiver providers. Any unexpended balances remaining at the end of fiscal year 2026 from this appropriation shall not revert and may be expended through fiscal year 2027.”

It appears this special request may have been submitted after the Health Care Authority submitted its operational budget request for FY 26 (which begins July 1, 2025).

It may be that the Governor and her staff are finally responding to the strong messages they received at a Summit meeting she held at the end of August, at which advocates made clear the state was failing to provide the financial resources needed to do their jobs.

The Candle will include reporting on that summit as part of this series.

The Highly Paid Administrators of Programs for the Developmentally Disabled Community

Despite years of under-funding programs, Governor Lujan Grisham has provided high salaries to those she appointed to run programs and determine the distribution of money for the care and services to developmentally disabled New Mexicans.

The Candle will be reporting further on the disparity of pay in the next article, but for today, here is just a short list of the very top earners that are responsible for the way the state delivers services to the most vulnerable New Mexicans: