New York S 3953: Establishes a veterans' gerontological advisory committee

Bill Text

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S03953 Summary:

BILL NOS03953 

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SAME ASNo Same As

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SPONSORRAMOS

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COSPNSRCLEARE, COMRIE, FERNANDEZ, GONZALEZ, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, JACKSON, MAYER, PARKER, RIVERA, WEBB

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MLTSPNSR

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Add Art 19-E §§697 - 697-b, Lab L

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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.

Go to top S03953 Actions:

BILL NOS03953 

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01/31/2025REFERRED TO LABOR

01/07/2026REFERRED TO LABOR

Go to topS03953 Committee&nbspVotes:

Go to topS03953 Floor&nbspVotes:

There are no Assembly votes for this bill in this legislative session.

Go to topS03953 Text:

 STATE OF NEW YORK
 ________________________________________________________________________

 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 t