Month: September 2016

Executive Summary.  Home care agencies in New York are experimenting with different packages of additional wages and benefits to meet the State’s Wage Parity Act requirements. This Act requires a minimum wage rate of $10.00 per hour and additional wages or benefits – a $4.09 per hour package in NYC and a $3.22 package in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties (the “WPA Package”).  Some agencies spend nearly all of the amount above the $10.00 base wage on additional wages, absorbing the additional employment taxes, which are not creditable against the WPA Package.  Other agencies combine additional wages with minimum value and minimum essential health plan coverage in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act. Still others expand into more items, going beyond additional wages and health plans to create benefit programs that provide everything from transportation benefits to cell phone plan reimbursements. Their goal is to deliver all these benefits tax-free to workers, so receiving the benefits is better than additional wages alone, which subject a worker to income and FICA tax. When this is done properly, it is a “win-win” for the agency and the worker. The agency takes a business tax deduction for the total benefits’ actual cost, the worker receives the benefits without cost and tax-free, and the entire amount is creditable against WPA total compensation. But this can be difficult to achieve. It means complying not only with the WPA, but also with the Internal Revenue Code, ERISA, the Affordable Care Act, and wage and hour laws, including the NYS Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. When a benefit is not screened through each of these statutes, agencies are exposed to government audits, penalties, and lawsuits, as well as the soon-to-be announced protocols for validating WPA certifications. Continue reading “Part 4- How Do You Construct WPA Creditable Benefits?” →