New York state has paid more than $2 billion in bonuses to more than 800,000 health care workers through a program launched in 2022 and provided bonuses of up to $3,000 for eligible health care workers, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.

The state’s Health Care Worker Bonus Program issued payments to workers who provide hands-on and patient-facing health care services. Eligible workers must have an annualized base salary of $125,000 or less and can be full-time or part-time.

Bonuses payments were determined by specific "vesting periods," or the number of hours worked during a consecutive six-month period between October 2021 and March 2024, the governor’s office said.

“Health care workers deliver for New Yorkers every day – and that’s why we’re delivering for them,” Hochul said in a statement. “Our powerful investments are putting money back in workers’ pockets and helping to grow our health care workforce to provide the highest quality care for New Yorkers.”

State lawmakers and state officials have spent the last several years aiming to ease the burdens of the health care industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen staffing shortages and numerous strikes.