New York home care aides must be paid more than the minimum wage

Home care aides help older and disabled New Yorkers with daily tasks at home, and for years many of them earned only the regular minimum wage. The 2022 state budget changed that by setting a separate, higher minimum wage just for them. Starting October 1, 2022, aides had to earn $2 an hour more than the regular minimum: $17 instead of $15 in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, and $15.20 instead of $13.20 in the rest of the state. The state set aside $7.7 billion over four years to pay for the raise.

Aides don’t have to apply. Their employers must pay the higher rate. The budget also planned another $1 for 2023. That year, lawmakers replaced it with three yearly steps. Downstate pay reached $19.65 an hour in 2026, and it rises with inflation from 2027 on. One catch: for downstate aides on Medicaid-paid cases, the 2023 change also cut a separate wage-parity benefit by $1.55 an hour.

Sen. Rachel May and Assembly Member Richard Gottfried sponsored the Fair Pay for Home Care Act, which would have paid aides 150% of the minimum wage. Both houses put that proposal in their budget plans, but the final deal was smaller. May championed home care workers in the final budget negotiations, and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the budget on April 9, 2022.