VIP Living Wage

Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman released another in a series of audits today that takes a look at personal care aid agencies that contract with the County and how they comply with the County’s Living Wage Law. The Comptroller’s Living Wage Unit is currently conducting a review of almost all the 35 home health care agencies that contract with the County.

An audit of VIP Health Care Services (“VIP”) of Richmond Hill found that the agency’s compensated days off policy was not compliant with the law because employees were not granted time off as earned. The policy granted seven paid days off after the first year of employment, another seven paid days off after the second year and eight after the third year. VIP would then perform an annual review of vacation payouts of employees serving Nassau DSS clients to ensure that the mandated vacation was granted. This violated the Law’s requirement that allows employees to earn time off each month and, after six month of service, to begin using compensatory days off as earned.

VIP provided the Comptroller’s Office with a report showing the compensated days off that should have been provided to the covered employees. According to that report, employees earned 3,442 hours of compensated time off. As of December 31, 2007, 1,705 of these hours were still available to the employees upon their request.

Following the Comptroller’s audit of VIP Health Care Services, that agency reached an agreement with the union representing personal care employees and now no longer fall under the County’s Living Wage Law guidelines. Under the agency’s new collective bargaining agreement, employees agreed to waive the requirement of compensated days off with an effective date back to January 1, 2007.

Nassau County lawmakers unanimously passed the Living Wage Law in December of 2006, a law aimed at ensuring that employees of Nassau County contractors are earning a decent hourly wage, receiving health benefits or child care benefits or a cash supplement instead of benefits, and 12 paid days off annually.

The Living Wage Law, which went into effect in 2007, set hourly wages from $9.50 in 2007, gradually increasing to $12.50 in 2010. Currently, the wage is set at $10.50 with health benefits or $12.05 without benefits. At the time the audit was conducted in 2007, the Living Wage was $9.50 per hour and the benefits supplement rate was $1.50 per hour. In addition, the law provides for up to 12 days of paid time off to be provided to eligible employees.

So far, the Comptroller’s office has found 10 agencies that have failed to fully comply with the law and owed employees compensation.

"The County’s Living Wage Law is meant to provide employees of companies that contract with the County the ability earn a decent wage,” Weitzman said. “We started our Living Wage audits with personal home health care aide contracts because the aides are paid low wages, yet deliver a vital service.”

Weitzman finds health care provider owes employees days off under County’s Living Wage Law