In August, the Department of Health (“DOH”) held a presentation for MLTCs regarding the State’s rate setting for Medicaid services. On one of the PowerPoint slides, the DOH noted that the minimum wage (“MW”) rate for upstate home care workers would be increased by an additional $.70 (on top of the $2.00 that was going into effect on October 1), effective as of December 31, 2022. This was the first indication of an upstate minimum wage increase and many providers took note of the $.70 notation and have been negotiating their rates with plans around a $.70 increase. However, as the Department of Labor has made clear several weeks ago, the $1.00 MW rate increase for upstate employers (in all industries) would be $1.00, and the DOL expects this $1.00 increase to be added onto the home care workers’ then-rate of $15.20. Thus, effective with hours worked on December 31, 2022 and until October 1, 2023, the MW for upstate home care workers will be $16.20.
The Home care worker minimum wage legislation that was passed earlier this year in April stated home care workers would receive $2.00 “in addition to the otherwise applicable minimum wage .” Effectively, this means that the $2.00 for home care workers is paid on top of whatever MW rate is then in effect for the New York region at issue. As providers probably have seen, the Upstate MW is going up from $13.20 to $14.20 on December 31, 2022 for all industries. Thus, on December 31, when the new upstate MW increases to $14.20, the $2.00 home care worker MW premium will be added onto that rate of $14.20, resulting in a new upstate MW rate of $16.20.
The State has published several MW posters which suggest that the DOL considers the new, higher, home care worker wage rates to be the “minimum wage.” This question is relevant to issues such as travel time pay, in-service pay and spread of hours. Thus, in accordance with the current interpretation of New York DOL, the MW for all home care intents and purposes would appear to be the new rate (inclusive of the $2.00 increase) and not the Statewide MW rate.
Please reach out to Poricanin Law if you have any questions about these minimum wage changes