This brief examines New York’s home care minimum wage increase, revealing mixed outcomes. While the policy aimed to support workers, implementation changes reduced its impact for some, especially downstate. Issues include inadequate reimbursement planning, lack of transparency, and cost-focused decision-making. The report offers six recommendations for New York and other states to improve support for home care workers, including better wage legislation, enhanced data collection, and creating a workforce taskforce.
Key Takeaways
Policy changes during implementation reduced the wage increase's impact for some workers, particularly in downstate regions.
Insufficient reimbursement rate planning may create challenges for home care agencies to fully support the wage increase.
Limited transparency and absence of evaluation plans hinder assessment of the policy's effectiveness and worker impact.
Kezia Scales leads PHI’s strategy for building the evidence base on state and national policies and workforce interventions that improve direct care jobs, elevate this essential workforce, and strengthen care processes and outcomes.
