Effective October 1, 2020, New York City (NYC)employers of home care aides subject to the Home Care Worker Wage Parity law must provide employees a notice which details the supplemental benefit portion of the minimum rate of home care aide total compensation. The information must specify the hourly rate paid, the type of supplement or type of home care aide benefits, the names and addresses of the benefit providers, and the plan or agreement, if any, that creates the benefit for each type of benefit. In addition, employers must include information for each wage parity supplemental benefit provided, and the hourly rate for each, on the employee’s pay statement.
Wage Parity Law
The Home Care Worker Wage Parity Law applies to home care aides who perform Medicaid-reimbursed work within New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, and permits employers to choose to pay these workers both a base wage and a supplemental benefit to satisfy a minimum rate of total compensation or the full minimum wage.
The required benefit portion of total compensation for home care aides is currently at a set value of $3.22 per hour in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, and $4.09 in New York City. The base wage is the current state minimum wage for the applicable region.
Next Steps for Employers
The Department of Labor has created a new template for home care aides, LS-62, to assist employers in meeting this notification requirement; the templates are also available in various languages. Employers must provide notices in English and in any other language identified by particular employees as their primary language, provided the New York State Department of Labor has made available a template in that language.
Notices must be provided at the time of hire and upon any change to the pay notice information, and the employer must have each employee sign and date the pay notice, keep the original signed notice for six years, and provide a copy to the employee.
Employers should also work with their payroll provider to ensure that all required information is included on the employee’s pay statement.
For more information on wage parity requirements, employers are encouraged to visit the NYS Department of Health’s Home Care Worker Wage Parity webpage.
