A 1974 ruling by the Department of Labor (DOL) grouped adult home health care workers with teenage babysitters as "companions" not entitled to the wage protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld that interpretation, saying it was up to Congress or the DOL to change the interpretation.
Yesterday (Dec. 15, 2011), the DOL did just that with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will fold home health care workers (but not babysitters) into the wage-and-hour protections of the FLSA. There will be a 60-day public commentary period before the department moves to finalize and publish the rule.
Currently, there are 1.9 million home health care workers in the United States, of whom 1.59 million work for staffing agencies.
Joining in on the announcement, President Obama noted,“Today’s action will ensure that these men and women get paid fairly for a service that a growing number of older Americans couldn’t live without.”
To understand all the requirements and regulations of the FLSA, please procure a copy of Personnel Concepts' informative but easy-to-use FLSA Compliance Program.
I have read and fully understand the notice of exemption. As a Home Care owner, I do not agree with the standard held by the DOL. Our workers prefer the style of work they do and how they are paid.. However, having said that, I realize people need more pay and better benefits. The only persons who will benefit from such a ruling is NO ONE. Our clients will pay more for services, our employees will have less work time, more difficult scheduling and less profit for us and less pay for employees. Overtime cost is expensive. In our small operation I am willing to share some numbers… Our monthly payroll is roughly $17,000.00 dollars a month. Our gross income is roughly 25,000. After we pay ourselves and keep the lights on, the company makes roughly 1 or 2 thousand a month. That is not a great corporate income as most people seem to think. We pay ourselves $4,000.00 a month before taxes! So we take home about $3300 a month to support our families and home. We are a small business providing services for about 20 to 30 clients for about 400 hours of scheduled services a week. Does that sound like a large business to you? Believe me, this is about the average Home Care company cost and income for a usual number of clients. Growth is long and difficult. Especially in these tough economic times. Our workers are glad to have the hours they get and we pay them as much as we can afford. If something is not broken….Don't fix it! We pay our employees $10.00 per hour. That is more than the usual Home Company. Straight time and overnights pay at a rate per weekend. roughly 200 or so. Depending on the client and how they are paying. Some have Insurances, others are private pay. We also have a volunteer program to service under income families… Low income people on a fixed budget. A volunteer will work in their home for a number of hours to reduce their overall cost of service… What else can we do!? Give away our services? We background check, certify and train every employee and observe all the other regulations for the state and federal government. We are an EOE, disabled ready, in fact I am a disabled Viet Nam War Veteran myself… The owner. I will not state my company name for respect of others. My company will be hardest hit and others like mine if this law passes the DOL. Do not support the elimination of the exemption to Home Care businesses. Our community suffers if it passes!