HB4962 Summary: Community Disability Living Wage Act

• Requires Department of Human Services and Department of Healthcare and Family Services to increase reimbursement rates for community-based providers serving persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities to provide a minimum $3.00 per hour wage increase for front-line personnel effective July 1, 2024.

• Applies to direct support professionals, aides, front-line supervisors, and non-administrative support staff in residential and day programs, intermediate care facilities, medically complex facilities, and service coordination agencies.

• Mandates wages for other residential non-executive direct care staff (excluding direct support professionals) be set at the U.S. Department of Labor's average wage as defined by rule.

• Grants emergency rulemaking authority to both departments to expeditiously implement the wage increases, with this emergency authority expiring one year after the bill's effective date.

• Intended to reduce employee turnover, improve service quality, and address workforce shortages in community disability services by bringing wages above poverty level and competitive with other employers.