Relates to the convening of a human services employee wage board; requires the commissioner of labor to convene a human services employee wage board comprised of twelve members; requires the wage board to hold hearings and report and make recommendations to the governor and legislature no later than December 31, 2025.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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3953
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 31, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, CLEARE, COMRIE, FERNANDEZ, HOYLMAN-SIGAL,
JACKSON, MAYER, PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to the convening of a human
services employee wage board
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new article 19-E to
2 read as follows:
3 ARTICLE 19-E
4 HUMAN SERVICES EMPLOYEES
5 Section 697. Statement of public policy.
6 697-a. Definitions.
7 697-b. Human services employee wage board.
8 § 697. Statement of public policy. The legislature hereby finds and
9 declares that there are persons employed by human services providers in
10 the state of New York at wages insufficient to provide adequate mainte-
11 nance for themselves and their families.
12 Human services workers are essential to the state and localities'
13 ability to assist new yorkers confronting a range of social challenges.
14 To achieve cost savings, government has transferred most legally
15 mandated human services for New Yorkers to nonprofits and in turn have
16 created massive pay disparities within the field. Government is not just
17 the predominant funder of human services in New York, it is also the
18 main driver of human services salaries as it directly sets salary rates
19 on contracts or does so indirectly by establishing costs for a unit or
20 service, along with required staffing on a contract.
21 Nonprofits contracted to provide human services are not only provided
22 insufficient funding to pay their employees, but are met with chronic
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08513-01-5
S. 3953 2
1 delays in payment, underfunding, and a lack of sincere collaboration to
2 create meaningful and lasting interventions. Between two thousand eight
3 and two thousand eighteen, the state cut human services funding by twen-
4 ty-six percent, with lower rates now than in nineteen hundred eighty.
5 These contracting practices have created extreme pay disparities where
6 human services workers make on average seventy-one percent of what
7 government employees make, and eighty-two percent of what private sector
8 workers receive.
9 The pay disparities in the human services sector also have important
10 consequences for race and gender equity. The human services provider
11 workforce of nearly eight hundred thousand people is overwhelmingly
12 female (sixty-six percent), over two-thirds are full-time workers of
13 color (sixty-eight percent), and nearly half (forty-six percent) are
14 women of color. The majority (sixty-three percent) have a four year
15 college degree or better; yet they make about twenty thousand dollars a
16 year less than a public sector worker with a comparable education.
17 Government savings are being borne on the backs of low-income neigh-
18 borhoods and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities
19 who get reduced services and a workforce that is predominantly made up
20 of women and people of color who are paid poverty-level wages. The rela-
21 tively low pay in the core human services sector means that fifteen
22 percent of all workers (both full- and part-time) qualified for food
23 stamps in two thousand sixteen through two thousand eighteen.
24 A human services employee wage board is necessary to investigate the
25 pay disparities between government employees and employees of contracted
26 human services providers and develop recommendations on adequate and
27 equitable wages.
28 § 697-a. Definitions. As used in this article:
29 1. "Human services" shall mean any service provided to individuals or
30 groups of individuals, for the purpose of improving or enhancing such
31 individuals' health and/or welfare, by addressing social problems
32 including but not limited to: domestic violence, teenage pregnancy,
33 migrant health problems, child abuse, nutritional deficiencies, suicide,
34 hunger, unemployment, lack of suitable shelter, crime, drug and alcohol
35 abuse, environmental justice, and poverty.
36 2. "Human services provider" shall mean any: (a) not-for-profit or
37 charitable organization, or (b) local agency as defined in subdivision
38 three of this section, that (i) contracts with any state agency or other
39 public entity, as defined in subdivisions four and five of this section
40 to provide human services as defined in subdivision one of this section,
41 or (ii) directly or indirectly receives any public funds to provide or
42 contract with third persons to provide human services for the benefit of
43 the general public or specific client groups.
44 3. "Local agency" shall include all county, city, town and village
45 governing bodies, all other public corporations, special districts and
46 school districts in the state.
47 4. "State agency" shall include any department, division, board,
48 bureau, commission, office, agency, authority or public corporation of
49 the state.
50 5. "Public entity" shall mean any local agency as defined in subdivi-
51 sion three of this section and any state agency as defined in subdivi-
52 sion four of this section.
53 § 697-b. Human services employee wage board. 1. Membership. The
54 commissioner shall hereby convene a human services employee wage board.
55 The wage board shall be comprised of twelve members: three human
56 services employees, three human services providers, three coalitions
S. 3953 3
1 representing human services providers, and three members appointed by
2 the commissioner, who shall be selected from the general public and one
3 of whom shall be designated as chairperson. The wage board shall hold
4 its first hearing no later than March first, two thousand twenty-five.
5 The members of the board shall not receive a salary or other compen-
6 sation, but shall be paid actual and necessary traveling expenses while
7 engaged in the performance of their duties.
8 2. Organization. Two-thirds of the members of the board shall consti-
9 tute a quorum. The chairperson may from time to time formulate rules
10 governing the manner in which the wage board shall function and perform
11 its duties under this article.
12 3. Powers. The wage board shall have power to conduct public hearings.
13 The board may also consult with human services providers and human
14 services employees, and their respective representatives, in the occupa-
15 tion or occupations involved, and with such other persons, including the
16 commissioner, the commissioner of children and family services, the
17 commissioner of temporary and disability assistance, the commissioner of
18 addiction services and supports, the director of the state office for
19 the aging, the commissioner of people with developmental disabilities,
20 the commissioner of mental health, the commissioner of health, and the
21 deputy secretary for human services and mental hygiene, as it shall
22 determine. The board shall also have power to administer oaths and to
23 require by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the
24 production of all books, records, and other evidence relative to any
25 matters under inquiry. Such subpoenas shall be signed and issued by the
26 chairperson of the board and shall be served and have the same effect as
27 if issued out of the supreme court. The board shall have power to cause
28 depositions of witnesses residing within or without the state to be
29 taken in the manner prescribed for like depositions in civil actions in
30 the supreme court. The board shall not be bound by common law or statu-
31 tory rules of procedure or evidence.
32 4. Public hearings. Within forty-five days of the appointment of the
33 wage board, the board shall conduct public hearings. The wage board
34 shall only meet within the state and shall hold at least three hearings
35 at which the public will be afforded an opportunity to provide comments.
36 At least one Spanish language interpreter shall be present at each
37 public hearing to interpret oral testimony delivered in Spanish. Where a
38 witness requests in advance of such hearing an interpreter in a language
39 other than Spanish, including but not limited to sign language, an
40 interpreter in that language shall be provided. Any materials advertis-
41 ing such hearings shall be bilingual in English, Spanish, and other
42 languages commonly spoken by human services employees in the geographic
43 region of the hearing. Any written materials disbursed at the hearing or
44 subsequent to the hearing, including written testimony and hearing tran-
45 scripts, shall be available in English, Spanish, and any other language
46 upon request and shall be made available in a format accessible to those
47 with visual disabilities upon request. Any visual materials presented at
48 the hearing or subsequent to the hearing shall be made available in a
49 format accessible to those with visual disabilities upon request.
50 5. Report. The wage board shall make a report to the governor and the
51 legislature. Such report shall be published contemporaneously on the
52 website of the department. The report and recommendations of the board
53 shall be submitted only after a vote of not less than a majority of all
54 its members in support of such report and recommendations. Such report
55 shall be submitted no later than December thirty-first, two thousand
56 twenty-five.
S. 3953 4
1 6. Considerations. The wage board shall consider the pay disparities
2 between human services employees and government and private sector
3 employees performing the same duties, fringe benefits and other employee
4 benefits, human services employee wages relative to the federal poverty
5 guidelines, the impact of cost of living on human service employee
6 wages, and recommendations for wages that would provide for adequate
7 maintenance and to protect the health of human services employees.
8 7. Commissioner's actions. The commissioner shall comply with section
9 six hundred fifty-six of this chapter upon receipt of the wage board's
10 recommendations. The commissioner may reconvene the same wage board or
11 appoint a new wage board in compliance with section six hundred fifty-
12 nine of this chapter.
13 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
