Home Health & Hospice Week

Federal bill proceeds to conference committee.

Home health agencies should have possible minimum wage increases squarely on their radar screens.

Lawmakers in Washington are weighing the issue, and some states have recently passed or are considering increases to the minimum wage for home health workers and other employees.

Even some counties are in on the legislative action. New York's Nassau County bumped up wages as of Jan. 1 to $9.50 for certain workers. The hourly rate there will continue to increase over several years, reaching $12.50 in 2010.

"Efforts are under way to amend the law so that it will be less onerous for home care agencies and other employers," reports the Home Care Association of New York State.

Big impact: In Washington, a bill to increase the minimum wage to $7.25--the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007--is on its way to a conference committee of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

The bill would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to an eventual $7.25 an hour. The $2.10 increase would come in three phases over a two-year period. The bill passed the House Jan. 10. The Senate approved it Feb. 2.

Congress last increased the federal minimum in 1997 to the $5.15 an hour, where it currently stands.

Twenty-nine states, including New Jersey, now have a minimum wage higher than $5.15 per hour.