Western Missouri District Court, Kansas City, MO
Supportive services workers who care for people with Medicaid in community-based residential care settings are not exempt from federal minimum wage and overtime requirements, confirmed a U.S. district court in Western Missouri.
The case of Solis v. Firstcall Staffing Solutions, Inc. (pdf) involved 10 developmentally disabled consumers sharing four dwellings in an Independence, MO, apartment complex. The employer, Firstcall Staffing Solutions, had argued that because the community-based care facility had been set up as individual apartments, it should be treated as the recipients’ homes.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “companionship” exemption, workers providing certain services in a consumer’s private home are currently exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections.
Backs Longstanding DOL Position
The court agreed with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that the community-based residential setting did not qualify as a private home.
“The DOL and most federal courts have taken the position that the companionship exemption does not apply in such settings,” said Paul Sonn of the National Employment Law Project.
Community-Based Care Not Affected by Possible Exemption Reforms
“Because service workers employed in community-based residential care settings are already covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements, they would not be affected by possible reforms to the companionship exemption,” Sonn continued.
PHI and other advocates have called on DOL to narrow the exemption in order to extend wage and overtime protections to a greater number of home care workers.
“While we await Department action on limiting applicability of the companionship exemption to agency-employed home care workers, it is heartening to see DOL’s vigilance in combating efforts to extend the exemption more broadly and deprive direct-care workers of their rightful wage and overtime protections,” said Steve Edelstein, PHI’s National Policy Director.
