WIOA on-the-job training for NEMT drivers: getting part of a new hire's wages paid while you train

A NEMT company can ask its local workforce board to pay part of a new driver’s wages while the driver learns the job. The tool is an on-the-job training contract under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, known as WIOA. The board reimburses typically up to 50 percent of the wage for the training period, and up to 75 percent in some cases, in return for a real job at the end. The catch is order: at the boards described below, the driver has to be found eligible and the contract signed before the driver starts. This page covers the rate, who qualifies, what you agree to, and how the contract fits a driver’s first weeks. For other ways to pay for growth, see NEMT business funding.

What is WIOA on-the-job training?

On-the-job training is a paid job with a training plan, where a public workforce agency repays the employer part of the wage for the training period. The law defines it as training by an employer, provided to a paid participant while engaged in productive work in a job that teaches skills essential to the full performance of that job, reimbursed up to 50 percent of the participant’s wage rate for the extraordinary costs of training and added supervision, and limited in duration to what the occupation needs (29 U.S.C. 3102(44)).

The money is not a grant for equipment or classes. Federal rules treat it as compensation for the cost of training the person and for lower productivity while the person learns, and they say the employer does not have to document those costs (20 CFR 680.720). The reimbursement is a percentage of wages, and the contract is with the board, not with the state Medicaid agency or a broker.

How much does the board reimburse?

The federal starting point is up to 50 percent of the wage rate, and the ceiling is 75 percent unless a waiver says otherwise. A governor or local board may raise the rate to 75 percent after taking into account the participant’s characteristics, the size of the employer, the quality of the training and advancement the employer offers, and other factors it chooses (29 U.S.C. 3174(c)(3)(H) and 20 CFR 680.730). A board must document the factors it used to go above 50 percent.

Local boards turn that into tiers, so the number you get depends on where you operate:

• work2future, San Jose, California. A maximum of 50 percent for employers with 100 or more employees, 65 percent for 20 to 99, and 75 percent for 1 to 19. Training costs per participant are capped at $7,500, subject to funding.
• Lower Savannah, South Carolina. 75 percent for employers with 100 or fewer employees and 50 percent for 101 or more.
• Illinois. A June 3, 2026 Labor Department letter to the governor lists a waiver of the 75 percent ceiling, requested in March 2024, that lets OJT employer reimbursement reach 90 percent for businesses with 50 or fewer employees. The waiver stays in effect until June 30, 2028.

As an example with made-up numbers, a driver paid $18 an hour for 40 hours a week over an 8-week training period earns $5,760. At 50 percent the board would reimburse $2,880. At 75 percent it would reimburse $4,320. Real contracts use the wage you actually pay and the training length the board approves. Training time is limited to what it takes to become proficient in the job (20 CFR 680.700).

Lower Savannah also says what counts as paid hours. Work time includes paid time spent on work-related training such as studying manuals, job seminars, workshops and one-on-one training. Paid time off, fringe benefits and shift differential are not reimbursed.

Who qualifies for an OJT contract?

The driver, not the company, has to be found eligible, and the local career center decides. Federal rules allow training services for employed and unemployed adults and dislocated workers whom a one-stop center finds unlikely to get or keep a self-sufficient job through career services alone, in need of training, and able to take part (20 CFR 680.210). Where adult funds pay for training, priority goes to recipients of public assistance, other low-income people and people with weak basic skills (20 CFR 680.600).

An OJT contract can also cover an employed worker, but only for an upgrade: the worker is not earning a self-sufficient wage and the training involves new technology, new procedures or a higher-skill job (20 CFR 680.710). A current employee moving into a job that needs new skills may fit if the board agrees. Training for the job a person was already hired into usually does not.

Boards add their own screens. Lower Savannah says a trainee must not already have the skills in the training outline, must not already have been hired, offered a job or started with the employer before the agreement is signed, and must not be the employer’s immediate family. It also says no payment should be counted on until eligibility is complete, the agreement is signed and a training outline with a length is approved.

Why the order matters: contract first, then the offer

At both boards above the contract is signed before the trainee starts, and Lower Savannah also bars anyone already hired or offered the job, so a company that makes the offer first can lose the money. work2future calls OJT a hire-first program, meaning the trainee begins as a full-time employee of the company, but it also says the contract must be completed and signed by all parties before the trainee may begin. Either way, the request to the board comes before the job offer.

Plan the sequence like this:

1. Contact the board first. Ask for the business services office at your local American Job Center.
2. Let the board screen. Its staff refer candidates and determine eligibility.
3. Sign the contract and training plan. work2future’s plan lists the occupation, the duration, the wage rate, the reimbursement rate and the maximum reimbursement. Lower Savannah’s agreement carries a training outline with the length and the total payment.
4. Make the offer. Send a conditional offer that matches the contract, since the background check, driving record, drug test, broker and insurer approvals still apply.
5. Start the driver. Training begins on the date in the contract.

Both boards also describe the job as full time. work2future refers to trainees as full-time employees, and Lower Savannah requires at least 30 hours a week. A driver scheduled for 12 hours a week of dialysis runs would not qualify at a board like these. Both also write the contract for an employee on your payroll: work2future says trainees begin as employees of the company, and Lower Savannah says they are employees with the same rights as similar workers. A driver you plan to pay as a 1099 contractor is not who these contracts are written for, and the employee or contractor guide explains how the classification is decided.

What you agree to in return

The reimbursement comes with promises about the job and the people already in it. These are the common ones:

• A real job at the end. Federal rules bar an OJT contract with an employer that has taken payments before and shown a pattern of not giving OJT participants continued long-term employment as regular employees, with the same wages, benefits and working conditions as similar workers (20 CFR 680.700).
• No displacement. A participant may not displace any current employee, partially or fully, may not fill a job when someone is on layoff from the same or a similar one, and may not replace a regular employee you let go for that purpose (20 CFR 683.270).
• The same terms as other employees. Lower Savannah says OJT trainees are employees with the same working conditions, benefits and rights as similar workers. work2future adds that pay must meet the federal or state minimum wage.
• Records. work2future requires payroll systems that track hours worked, gross pay, deductions and net pay, and it monitors OJT through payroll records and reimbursement invoices. Lower Savannah accepts invoices monthly, quarterly or after training ends, with the final one due within a month of completion.
• Notice before ending the job. Lower Savannah asks employers to tell the board before terminating a trainee, or within two business days if advance notice is not possible.
• Good standing. work2future asks that an employer have operated in its area for at least 120 days, be current on unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation taxes, and be solvent through the training and a 12-month follow-up period.

Reimbursement also depends on funding. Lower Savannah’s page says employer payment is contingent on its funding from the Department of Labor, so ask whether the board has OJT money this program year.

Writing a driver training plan the board will sign

A NEMT driver plan fits a board’s format if it lists the skills the person lacks and the order they are learned. A training outline names the occupation, the skills and the length, and work2future also wants the wage and the reimbursement rate. For a driver, the skills usually include passenger assistance and wheelchair securement, defensive driving, first aid and CPR, privacy rules, and trip procedures such as signatures and no-show handling. The driver training guide lists the courses brokers expect.

Two details shape the plan. First, the training must be provided while the person works, so the plan has to match what the driver is allowed to do on day one. A driver cannot carry members until the broker credentials them, so the early weeks are classroom and yard work. Ask the board whether paid classroom hours count, using Lower Savannah’s rule on work-related training as the example. Second, a person who already holds PASS certification and has driven for another NEMT company may fail a rule like Lower Savannah’s that bars someone who already has the skills in the outline. Write the outline for what the new hire does not yet know.

Where WIOA stands now

The program still runs on the 2014 law, and two things are moving. A House bill to reauthorize WIOA, H.R. 8210, was introduced April 6, 2026, and GovTrack lists it as ordered reported by the committee on April 21, 2026, with no vote in either chamber. Separately, the Labor Department has been approving state waivers, as in the June 3, 2026 Illinois letter above. The practical step is the same either way: get your board’s current OJT policy in writing before you plan hiring around it.

Keeping hours for the reimbursement invoice

An OJT invoice rests on the hours a trainee worked, so keep the hours in one place. HealthRide keeps a timecard for each driver from real clock-ins, and the drivers report lists the hours behind every shift. Credentials such as PASS and CPR, with their expiration dates, live in fleet management, where HealthRide sends a reminder before one expires.