We Count on Home Care: Extending Protections to Direct Care Workers

2013

The following is from a press release from the Department of Labor talking about the inclusion of home health care workers in minimum wage and overtime rules applicable to other workers. This is necessary and fair in my opinion.

However, there are special rules for home health care aides who are directly engaged by families rather than through an agency. There are rules and regulations dealing with all this, but trying to understand and comply may be quite difficult for families and patients, many of whom may not be able to deal with the changes. In addition, for some families this will increase their costs making the service more difficult to sustain.

If you or your family directly engages a home health care aid, you may want to check into the new rules in more detail. The link below takes you to the Department of Labor site.

Direct care workers help countless Americans live at home, go to work, and participate more fully in their communities. We need fair wages for the valuable services that direct care workers provide. Due to out-of-date regulations, however, for too long these workers have been excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections. Earlier today, the department corrected that, announcing a final rule that gives these nearly 2 million workers the same basic protections already provided to most U.S. workers – including those who perform the same jobs in nursing homes.

This step will also help ensure that home care consumers have access to high quality care from a stable and increasingly professional workforce. Under the new rule, direct care workers employed by third-party employers, such as home care agencies, will receive minimum wage and overtime protection. Workers employed solely by a family or individual may be covered if they are performing medically-related duties or are providing more than a limited amount of care in addition to fellowship and protection. This is real work that needs to be recognized as such.

via We Count on Home Care: Extending Protections to Direct Care Workers.

Related articles

• New FLSA Home Health Care Rule (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Home care workers win minimum wage protection (money.cnn.com)