S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
7604
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
April 1, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SEAWRIGHT -- read once and referred to the
Committee on People with Disabilities
AN ACT relating to establishing a direct support wage enhancement to
employees that provide direct care support or any other form of treat-
ment, to individuals with developmental disabilities
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Direct support wage enhancement. 1. Notwithstanding any
other inconsistent provision of law, effective April 1, 2025, providers
licensed, funded, approved and/or certified by the office for people
with developmental disabilities to provide treatment, services and care
for individuals with developmental disabilities shall receive supple-
mental funding to enhance wages of employees that provide direct care
support or any other form of treatment, to individuals with develop-
mental disabilities and whose income is less than one hundred twenty-
five thousand dollars.
2. The commissioner of the office for people with developmental disa-
bilities, in consultation with the division of the budget, shall estab-
lish a list of eligible employee titles for such wage enhancement based
on the application of direct care to individuals with intellectual
and/or developmental disabilities.
3. Using the forms and processes developed by the commissioner of the
office for people with developmental disabilities under this section,
employers shall indicate the number of eligible employees based on the
list of eligible titles pursuant to subdivision two of this section.
4. The commissioner of the office for people with developmental disa-
bilities shall distribute an allocation to each eligible provider equiv-
alent to four thousand dollars per eligible employee based on the forms
developed pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
5. The funds distributed pursuant to this section must be used to
enhance base wages and benefits of eligible employees.
ยง 2. This act shall take effect April 1, 2025.
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
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