5-10-2022 2:32pm

Boost in Wages for Workers Caring for Vulnerable NJ Residents

The budget plan for this fiscal year, which starts July 1, includes $211.2 million to fund wage increases for direct support professionals, personal care assistants, childcare workers, nursing home workers, private duty nurses, community-based mental health and substance use disorder providers, and homeless shelter staff.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Governor Murphy’s budget has included wage increases for the workforce that cares for New Jersey’s most vulnerable residents.

The Governor’s proposed budget includes:

• $83.4 million to support direct support professionals who care for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in group homes and community-based programs. Funding includes $41.7 million in state resources and an equal amount in federal matching funds.

• $39 million for an across-the-board wage increase for all direct care staff for community-based mental health and substance use disorder providers.

• $34.8 million to support personal care assistants serving NJ FamilyCare. Funding includes $17.4 million in both state and federal funding.

• $157,000 to raise the wages of home health aides serving seniors in the Jersey Assistance for Community Caregiving program, and an additional $270,000 for home health aides in the Personal Assistance Services Program, which provides critical home health care services to adults with permanent, physical disabilities.

• $30 million for wage increases for nursing home workers, split evenly among federal and state funding.

• $12.8 million to support the childcare workforce. New Jersey's Child Care Subsidy Program provides full- and part-time child care assistance to families with low-incomes and working families with incomes less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. This increase for licensed center-based childcare providers that accept subsidy payments will help these providers meet new minimum wage increases.

• $7.8 million for a wage increase for private duty nurses, split evenly among federal and state funding.

• $3 million to support wage increases at homeless shelters.

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