Sorted by Rule 50 Geographic Groups
Based on a Change in Minnesota Statutes Effective April 9, 2002

Geographic Employee Group Class	Group One (76 facilities)	Group Two (168 facilities)	Group Three (161 facilities)
Registered Nurse	$21.04	$23.69	$25.45
LPN	$15.29	$15.84	$19.75
Nursing Aides (CNA)	$10.57	$11.22	$13.57
Trained Medication Aide (TMA)	$11.38	$12.11	$15.32

Geographic Employee Group Class	Group One (76 facilities)	Group Two (168 facilities)	Group Three (161 facilities)
Registered Nurse	$31.56	$35.54	$38.18
LPN	$22.94	$23.76	$29.63
Nursing Aides (CNA)	$15.86	$16.83	$20.36
Trained Medication Aide (TMA)	$17.07	$18.17	$22.98

Group One is the rural group consisting of Beltrami, Big Stone, Cass, Chippewa, Clearwater, Cottonwood, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Lake of the Woods, Lincoln, Lyon, Mahnomen, Meeker, Morrison, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, Swift, Todd, Yellow Medicine, and Wadena counties.

Group Two is the semi-rural group consisting of Becker, Benton, Blue Earth, Brown, Chisago, Clay, Dodge, Douglas, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Grant, Houston, Isanti, Kanabec, Kittson, LeSueur, McLeod, Marshall, Martin, Mille Lacs, Mower, Nicollet, Norman, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Pennington, Pine, Polk, Pope, Red Lake, Rice, Roseau, Sherburne, Sibley, Stearns, Steele, Stevens, Traverse, Wabasha, Waseca, Watonwan, Wilkin, Winona, and Wright counties.

Group Three is the metro group consisting of Aitkin, Anoka, Carlton, Carver, Cook, Dakota, Hennepin, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, Ramsey, Saint Louis, Scott, and Washington counties.

Sorted by Rule 50 Geographic Groups
Based on a Change in Minnesota Statutes Effective April 9, 2002

Geographic Employee Group Class	Group One (76 facilities)	Group Two (168 facilities)	Group Three (161 facilities)
Registered Nurse	$34.72	$42.16	$47.34
LPN	$24.77	$27.88	$36.94
Nursing Aides (CNA)	$17.33	$19.52	$25.51
Trained Medication Aide (TMA)	$19.46	$21.21	$29.42

Geographic Employee Group Class	Group One (76 facilities)	Group Two (168 facilities)	Group Three (161 facilities)
Registered Nurse	$52.08	$63.24	$71.01
LPN	$37.16	$41.82	$55.41
Nursing Aides (CNA)	$26.00	$29.28	$38.27
Trained Medication Aide (TMA)	$29.19	$31.82	$44.13

The counties in each of the three geographic groups is the same as the non-holiday pay scale.

Explanation of Rate Change

The 2002 legislature amended the maximum charge provisions for supplemental nursing services agencies (SNSA's). The change requires the Commissioner of Human Services to determine a factor, which is to be included in the weighted average wage rates, to account for payroll taxes as defined in Minnesota Rules 9549.0020, subpart 33, before applying the 150% factor to determine maximum allowable charges.

Subpart 33 of Minnesota Rules defines payroll taxes as the employer's share of social security withholding taxes, governmentally required retirement contributions, and state and federal unemployment compensation taxes or costs.

Social security withholdings are FICA and the Medicare tax. Current rates are 6.2% on the first $84,900 of earnings and 1.45% on all earnings, respectively.

State unemployment taxes are paid on the first $21,000 of wages at various rates depending on an employer's experience rating. The current range is .17% to 9.07%; the higher rates are for industries that have a substantial number of seasonal employees--construction, construction materials manufacturers, road building and repair, and surface mining. The federal unemployment rate is currently .8% (after credit) and is paid on the first $7,000 of wages. To determine what percentage to use, the historic amount of these taxes paid by NFs as a percent of social security taxes was reviewed. The percentage averaged 5.4% between 1994 and 2000. Therefore, the factor being used for unemployment taxes is the FICA and Medicare rates of 7.65% (6.20% + 1.45%) multiplied by 5.4% which equals .42%

Governmentally-required retirement contributions are known as public employee retirement accounts (PERA). The factor to use for these costs was determined by dividing allowed PERA contributions by allowed salary costs for 1994 and 2000. These amounts show an increase in the percentage over the years. However, they number of facilities that both have PERA plans and reported costs under Rule 50 is significantly higher in 2000 (12 out of 86 facilities or 14%) than in 1994 (31 out of 355 facilities or 8.7%). Therefore, the percentage from 1994 will be used.

^[1] Weighted by the number of employees in each job classification.

^[2]Days to which these rates apply are based on when the nursing facility pays higher rates to its employees for working recognized holidays.