In September, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a package of nursing home reforms that will have significant impact for caregivers and their patients. The bill commits significant resources to assist New Jersey’s nursing homes, which have the highest rate of coronavirus cases per facility in the nation and account for half of all COVID-19 deaths in the state. Among the reforms are the establishment of a task force to oversee New Jersey’s nursing homes. The reforms also establish a long-term care emergency operations system within New Jersey’s government. Perhaps most substantially, the reforms also include a path to boost New Jersey’s CNA minimum wage to $18 an hour.

New Jersey’s long-term care facilities suffer from some of the worst staffing rates in the nation; the wage boost is expected to a help alleviate that crisis through improved hiring and retention rates. “Over the past six months, nursing home workers across New Jersey have heroically risen to the challenges of COVID- 19,” said 1199’s NJ EVP Milly Silva.

“Critically, this legislative package recognizes the importance of investing in these frontline caregivers to ensure that we have a stable, healthy, and growing workforce that is able to meet the needs of our state’s aging population, now and in the future.”

- 1199 Magazine - September / October 2020