Legislative and Union Updates Set to Begin January 30, 2024
Effective January 30, 2024, a spouse or parent of a minor is no longer limited to 40 hours of paid personal assistance services in a seven-day period. Any hours over 40 hours per week overtime would apply and paid at time and a half regular rate of pay.
- If one parent provides personal assistance services to their minor child(ren), the parent may provide up to 60 hours of paid support in a seven-day period.
- If more than one parent provides personal assistance services to their minor child(ren), each parent may provide up to 40 hours of paid support in a seven-day period. The total number of combined hours provided by all parents cannot exceed 80 hours in a seven-day period.
- If a person’s spouse provides personal assistance services, the spouse may provide up to 60 hours of paid support in a seven-day period.
Prior to submitting additional hours, you must receive approval from your lead agency. Please contact your lead agency for more information. Click here to read the full DHS announcement.
Effective January 1st, 2024, the wage floor increases from $15.25 to $19.00 per hour. All employees need to be paid at a minimum rate of $19.00 per hour. Any employees that are currently under $19.00 will automatically be increased to $19.00. Per state law, you will be required to complete employee rate records or ERR forms by CDI.
The Paid Parent of Minor and Paid Spouse maximum rate increases to $22.74 per hour on January 1st. This is not an automatic increase and will require a budget revision if you are wanting to increase your rate. As approved by the county, you will need to submit an ERR form prior to the new rate to take effect, per State law.
Also effective on January 1, 2024, Minnesota state law requires that all employees receive time off for Sick & Safe reasons. This means that waiving Paid Time Off (PTO) is no longer an option. As required by law, all employees will be covered by PTO and will accrue or earn 1 hour of PTO for every 30 hours worked. This PTO benefit meets the Sick & Safe law but also gives employees greater flexibility in how they can use their PTO hours.
With these big wage increases, the PTO rate in your budget will increase from 4.15% to 4.65% effective January 1st. This will allow all FMS agencies to have the funds to pay out PTO hours at these higher wage rates.
Previously, employees had been receiving 5 holidays and 2 floating holidays. Moving forward, the floating holidays have been removed and employees will be receiving 3 additional holidays. With the additional holidays, there will now be a total of 8 holidays. Employees are eligible to receive time and a half pay if hours are worked on the following days: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving Day.
DHS is issuing budget increases to help cover the above changes. The CDCS increase will be 8.49% and CSG will be a 21.43% increase. Your Lead Agency will be calculating and providing the exact dollar amount of your increase. From there, CDI will assist you in revising the budget to adjust for the state law and union requirements explained above.
Current available Stipends:
Training Stipend:
o A worker who completes the qualifying training may receive a $500 stipend starting July 1, 2023, until the $2 million of stipend funding is exhausted or June 30, 2025.
o Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.
Direct Support Workers Retention Stipend program:
o Workers can qualify for a one-time retention stipend of $1,000 if they are currently in the SEIU collective bargaining unit and have been providing services for at least 6 months. There is $50 million available in funding or until May 31, 2025, whichever is sooner.
o Direct Support Workers Retention Stipend Program application page.
·Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Stipend:
o A one-time $200 to offset potential costs related to using individual devices to access electronic visit verification. There is $5.6 million available in funding or until May 31, 2025, whichever is sooner.