Voters’ Nov. 3 decision to raise Florida’s minimum wage from $8.56 to $15 per hour by 2026 may increase wages for some workers but also may put financial pressure on home healthcare agencies, causing some to lay off workers or even go out of business, according to the Home Care Association of Florida.
“We have to be able to pay for it,” Kyle Simon, director of government affairs and communications for the organization, told the Tampa Bay Times. If reimbursements to agencies — now at $17.46 per hour for workers who help with daily living care and $15 per hour for workers providing personal care services — do not increase along with the minimum wage, then providers won’t be able to offer such services, he said.
The association’s next step will be to ask providers to advocate that state lawmakers increase Medicaid reimbursement and address Medicare reimbursement, Simon said.
