Department of Labor Extends Minimum Wage/Overtime Protections To Home Health Aides
The Department of Labor announced earlier this month that it would extend rules found in the Fair Labor standards Act (FLSA) to cover workers who provide home healthcare assistance to elderly, sick or disabled individuals. According to the DOL, the new rules covering these workers will go into effect beginning in January 2015.
The changes, which will extend to issues such as minimum wage and overtime protection, will impact the lives of 2 million direct care workers. This category of direct care workers includes home health aides, personal aides and certified nursing assistants. The change means that direct care workers can now look forward to receiving the same wage-and-hour protections that are afforded by the vast majority of U.S. workers.
The extension of FLSA protections to direct care workers is something that many in the industry have lobbied for over the last few years. The industry has grown exponentially in recent decades as the number of older Americans has ballooned due to the number of aging Baby Boomers.
Despite the growth in the industry and the critical importance of their work, direct care workers remain among the lowest paid of all workers in the service industry, often earning less than those working in fast food positions. This may surprise many given the skilled nursing tasks that these workers are required to perform every day, a reason that the industry has lobbied for increase worker protections.
The industry has also advocated for the extension of workplace protections given that the workforce is made up predominantly of women and minorities, two groups that have historically been underpaid and left without sufficient workplace protection. According to data gathered by home care agencies that employ the vast majority of direct care workers, 90 percent of those in the industry are female. Of the total workers, 50 percent are also minorities.
Until now, FLSA has specifically excluded anyone working as a home health aide. Once the new regulations go into effect, the federal rules regarding minimum wage and overtime hours will apply to all direct care workers. This means that workers employed by home care agencies and other third parties will be included under the existing labor laws.
Currently, 15 states already extended these wage and overtime protections to direct care workers, meaning those working in the other 35 states stand to gain a lot of ground, especially those who are working hard for little financial return. Estimates by the Department of Labor indicate that the cost of paying home care workers minimum wages and overtime would constitute less than one tenth of one percent of the industry’s revenues, an insignificant level that is surely justified by the exhausting work performed by direct care workers on a daily basis.
Source: “Federal Wage-and-Hour Law to Cover Home Health Aides,” published at BusinessManagementDaily.com.
Source: “Home Health-Care Workers to Receive Minimum Wage, Overtime Pay,” by Amity Downing Shedd, published at SEMissourian.com.
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