Panel outlines nursing-home minimum-wage rules; Legislature hears competing cost estimates as SF2480 is laid over

The Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board told the Senate Human Services Committee on May 20 that it used public forums and state payroll data to craft minimum-wage rules for nursing homes, and that the rules are contingent on legislative funding before taking effect.

The board’s executive director, Leah Solo, told the committee that the board was created in law in 2023 and “adopt minimum nursing home employment standards that meet or ex exceed existing industry conditions for a majority of nursing home workers.” Solo said the board’s wage standards were written to meet a statutory “majority benchmark” requiring rules to lift at least 50 percent plus one of nursing home workers or match their current wages.

The board adopted two sets of minimum wages in May 2024 and published final notice of adoption in October 2024; Solo said the earliest the wage floors could take effect is Jan. 1, 2026, because the rules are contingent on an appropriation. The board also adopted a separate set of rules, effective Jan. 1, 2025, that require time-and-a-half holiday pay for work on state holidays, established a certification process for worker organizations to provide training, and required nursing homes to post notice of workers’ rights. Solo said the board launched a waiver and variance process in December 2024 for nursing homes that believe compliance would risk closure or receivership and that “as of today, we have received no applications yet under that process.”

Senate File 2480, sponsored by Sen. John Pappas, would…