BILL NUMBER: S4675
SPONSOR: RAMOS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to the convening of a human
services employee wage board
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Establishes a wage board to inquire into and report and recommend
adequate minimum wages for human services employees
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Amend the labor law by adding a new article 19-E that will
create a Human Services Employee Wage Board. This wage board will be
comprised of 12 members and have the power to conduct public hearings.
The wage board will submit reports to the governor and the legislature,
and the board will look at the pay disparities experienced by human
services employees. The commissioner will comply with the wage board's
recommendations. The commissioner may reconvene the same wage board or
appoint a new wage board. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Human services workers are essential to the State and localities' abili-
ty to assist New Yorkers confronting a range of social challenges. To
achieve cost savings, government has transferred most legally mandated
human services for New Yorkers to nonprofits and in turn have created
massive pay disparities within the field. Government is not just the
predominant funder of human services in New York, it is also the main
driver of human services salaries as it directly sets salary rates on
contracts or does so indirectly by establishing costs for a unit or
service, along with required staffing on a contract. Nonprofits
contracted to provide human services are not only provided insufficient
funding to pay their employees, but are met with chronic delays in
payment, underfunding, and a lack of sincere collaboration to create
meaningful and lasting interventions. Between 2008 and 2018, the State
cut human services funding by 26 percent, with lower rates now than in
1980. These contracting practices have created extreme pay disparities
where human services workers make on average 71% of what government
employees make, and 82% of what private sector workers receive. The pay
disparities in the human services sector also have important conse-
quences for race and gender equity. The human services provider work-
force of nearly 800,000 people is overwhelmingly female (66%), over
two-thirds are full-time workers of color (68%), and nearly half (46%)
are women of color. The majority (63%) have a 4-year college degree or
better; yet they make about $20,000 a year less than a public sector
worker with a comparable ' education.Government savings are being borne
on the backs of low- income neighborhoods and Black, Indigenous, and
people of color (BIPOC) communities who get reduced services and a work-
force that is predominantly made up of women and people of color who are
paid poverty-level wages. The relatively low pay in the core human
services sector means that 15% of all workers (both full- and part-time)
qualified for food stamps in 2016-18. A human services employee wage
board is necessary to investigate the pay disparities between government
employees and employees of contracted human services providers and
develop recommendations on adequate and equitable wages.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
None
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately