This month, we discuss Concerned Home Care Providers v. Cuomo,1 in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Debra Ann Livingston and joined by Judges John M. Walker Jr. and Richard C. Wesley, upheld New York’s Wage Parity Law (WPL).2 Specifically, the court ruled that the WPL is not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA); nor does the WPL violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause or Due Process Clause. In so ruling, the court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the complaint seeking a declaration that the WPL is invalid and a permanent injunction barring its enforcement.

Background

The New York Legislature enacted the WPL in 2011 as part of a Medicaid reform package. The need for reform arose due to so-called “wage inversion,” where certain qualified home care aides were being paid less than certain other home care aides because they did not work for New York City contractors, and therefore did not receive the benefit of the city’s Living Wage Law. To address this inequality, the WPL requires licensed home care services agencies in New York City and the surrounding counties of Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau to pay all home care aides providing Medicaid-covered care “an applicable minimum rate of home care aide total compensation”—including wages, benefits (or a supplemental hourly wage in lieu of benefits), and paid time off—to receive Medicaid reimbursements for that care.3

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