New Report Proves Lujan Grisham Administration Paying Direct Care Workers Below Real Poverty Level

Since 2019 Governor Lujan Grisham Gave Big Pay Increases for Agency Leaders and Her Staff While Paying Poverty Wages to Direct Caregivers of the Developmentally Disabled.

A report recently released by the Health Care Authority’s Developmental Disabilities Supports Division (DDSD), shows that thousands of workers who provide direct supportive care to New Mexicans with developmental disabilities are paid at poverty or below poverty wage levels.

(A copy of the report, known as the “HOUSE BILL 395 ANNUAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 1, 2025,” can be found at the end of this reporting.)

While Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is touting her universal child care initiative, making “child care available to all New Mexicans, regardless of income, by removing income eligibility requirements from the state’s child care assistance program and continuing the waiver of family copayments,” her Health Care Authority continues to pay Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) at wages $10,000 to $15,000 a year below the calculation of a Living Wage for New Mexico.

It’s important to put these two contrasting policies in perspective.

To fund her universal child care initiative, the Governor wants the Legislature to appropriate about $120 million.

The underpaid Direct Support Professionals have trouble making ends meet – while some high income New Mexicans are going to have access to free universal childcare.

Add that to her decision not to claw back $168.6 million in windfall overpayments to Managed Care Organization (as determined by the U.S. Office of Inspector General), even as the Governor’s team is quietly setting aside about $120 million to pay back he federal government what she won’t demand back from the MCOs.

And then there’s this: the Governor’s Health Care Authority refused to even start the process to implement a legislatively approved and funded increase in rates to pay these Direct Support Professionals a cost of living adjustment.

To many New Mexicans, that’s an upside down approach to governing, not to mention disingenuous as the the Governor claims she is making the lives of working families better.

Direct Support Professionals are the “boots on the ground” or “front-line” workers who provide direct support to clients of the Development Disabilities Supports Division (DDSD).

Yet, despite the critical role they play in delivering the wide range of services and supports that promote independence, inclusion, and quality of life for the disabled community, these workers are paid poorly through a system devised by state agencies.

In 2019, the Direct Support Professionals were paid $10.87 to $11.45 per hour. Almost seven years later, the new report’s data reveals that the average for these workers to be in the vicinity of $15 per hour.

Since then, the poverty wages paid through the state’s system, have received some increases, but at rates that continue to keep these workers behind the eight ball.

More insulting, during the current administration, as the plight of these workers has floundered, the Governor treated her personal staff and agency leaders to incredibly large pay increases which alone equal three times the annual pay the state provides for the critical caregivers.

The Candle will report more extensively between now and October 1, 2025 (when the Legislature is expected to hold a Special Session), on the study, the state’s failure to provide a living wage to these and other important employees, and a suggested pathway to cure the disparity.

Here is a snapshot of the disparity in pay as a result of the unfair choices made by the Governor’s administration since January 2019:

HOUSE BILL 395 ANNUAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 1, 2025