Even though the Governor has said that he won’t fund the minimum wage increases, he is doing more and more to do just that. The article below reports that he will fund Inpatient , Outpatient, Nursing Home and Home Care/Personal Care/Other. This will not take into account “compression” – it will just keep people, not at the new minimums, at the new minimums.
If you remember we reported that OMH programs will get $900,000 the first year – that will just bring any of our people who are not at the new minimum on January 1, 2017 up to that level. We don’t have many people who make less than $11.00 in the city, $10.00 in other downstate counties and $9.70 upstate so the amount that we are getting is far less than the home care agencies – the vast majority of their people are at the minimum wage.
We are concerned about the disparity upstate between the Labor Department’s mandate of $15 for fast food workers but only a statutory mandate of $12.50 for other workers. This means that our jobs will pale in comparison to fast food work, making it much more difficult to attract and retain employees. We are also very concerned about compression for the entire state. This is critical and we will spend a lot of time working with others on these issues.
We previously calculated that the Mental Health system would need nearly $300 million in the first year if they followed the Governor’s original proposal. However, the final agreement is different from the Governor’s original proposed – the phase in schedule in different, there are three different amounts being phased in and there are other counties that are included in the $15, other than the NYC boroughs, so all that has to be taken into account. We are recalculating. It will take a couple of weeks to finalize the number.
FROM CRAIN’s
State offers up to $58M to cover min wage in first year
State health and budget officials convened a meeting last Tuesday with representatives of various health sectors to explain how the state will cover the costs of raising the minimum wage. The state will distribute up to $218 million over the next two years, providers were told.
The fiscal 2017 budget includes $13 million in cash to cover providers’ costs; the state can appropriate up to $58 million, if necessary.
In fiscal 2018, the state will set aside about $88 million in cash, with the authority to appropriate up to $160 million.
The bulk of the funding will be distributed to home care providers, followed by nursing homes, outpatient care and inpatient care, in that order, according to a chart distributed by the Division of the Budget. State officials made clear that these amounts were not set in stone.
The breakdown does not include funding for organizations that treat people with developmental disabilities, which are regulated by OPWDD. “Our takeaway from the meeting was there’s a genuine desire on the part of the Cuomo administration to do this thing right, and to get moving on it right away,” said Laura Haight, vice president for public policy at the New York State Association of Health Care Providers, which represents home care agencies. One attendee, who declined to be named, said officials appeared to have done little so far to work out the details of how providers will be compensated. “They were just calling the meeting so people wouldn’t yell and scream,” he said, adding that it was a good sign that the state is looking at least two years ahead. “Hopefully that shows a commitment to fund us, even if we’re not completely happy.”
A spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement, “The state understands the concerns of our Medicaid and mental health partners and has included money in the budget to help resolve these issues. Conversations are ongoing and we look forward to finding solutions that meet needs of all stakeholders.”
Fast food wages may outstrip others – Received increase scheduled before statewide agreement on $15 minimum wage
By Rick Karlin
Published 9:30 pm, Monday, April 4, 2016
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, signs a law that will gradually raise New York’s minimum wage to $15, at the Javits Convention Center, in New York, Monday, April 4, 2016.
As with any piece of legislation, there are winners and losers.
The push toward a $15-an-hour minimum wage signed Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo makes for a lot of winners in that countless low-wage New Yorkers will see their pay increase in the next few years. But some will do even better — particularly upstate residents who work in fast-food establishments — when compared with others who labor at the minimum wage. A special Wage Board, created by the state Department of Labor at Cuomo’s behest last year, mandated that upstate fast food workers will see their pay reach $15 an hour by July 2021. But the overall minimum wage law signed on Monday brings upstate wages to $12.50 by the end of 2020. After that, wages would rise but only with the approval of the state Department of Labor and Division of Budget, who will calibrate increases, as the governor described it, to the region’s economic health.
In the final hours of budget passage last week there was some discussion and confusion over what the upstate schedule would do to fast food workers who had won their mandated raises earlier. That lingered into Monday. “We’re not sure at this point. Our legal counsel is reviewing it,” Melissa Flieschut, CEO of the state Restaurant Association, said when asked about the fast food pay. Cuomo’s office, however, said fast food workers should still get their scheduled raises. “The new minimum wage law does not supersede preexisting wage board orders,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in an email Monday about the wages.
“The fast food $15 minimum wage issued by the wage board will continue to phase in,” agreed Paul Sonn, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project, which favors the increase. Not so lucky are tipped workers. Their base pay — now $7.50 before tips — is scheduled to rise at the end of 2019. That will go to 66 percent of the minimum wage in their regions. It was to be 83 percent but that was scaled back as part of the compromise with Senate Republicans, Sonn said.
New York’s overall minimum wage is currently $9 an hour. The New York City minimum wage will increase to $15 at the end of 2018.
On Long Island and Westchester, it will hit $15 at the end of 2021.