For Immediate Release
July 28, 2010

Contact:
Deane Beebe, Media Relations Director
718.928.2033 (office) / 646.285.1039 (cell)
dbeebe@PHInational.org

We applaud Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) for introducing the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act. The bill includes minimum wage and overtime protections for America’s home care workers. One of America’s fastest-growing workforces, home care aides have been treated by the Department of Labor as a contingent workforce for too long.

Through our Campaign for Fair Pay, PHI, the Direct Care Alliance, and our allies continue to press the Department of Labor to immediately address this issue by ending the “companionship exemption” for workers who provide care and support to elders and to persons with disabilities. These workers should be provided the same protections under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act that virtually all other workers enjoy.

Rep. Sanchez’s Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act also seeks to build on the important accomplishments of the recently passed Affordable Care Act, which includes direct-care training funds as well as two national panels — the National Healthcare Workforce Commission and the Personal Care Attendants Workforce Advisory Panel. These initiatives will help address how to improve the quality of direct-care jobs, while improving the quality and efficiency of health care for all Americans.

We look forward to working with these panels, Representative Sanchez, our colleagues at the Direct Care Alliance and other allies to address the issues of compensation, training, and advancement opportunities for all direct-care workers who provide vital services and supports to America’s families.

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About PHI
PHI (www.phinational.org) works to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care—and the lives of the workers who provide that care. Using our workplace and policy expertise, we help consumers, workers, employers, and policymakers improve eldercare and disability services by creating quality direct-care jobs. Our goal is to ensure caring, stable relationships between consumers and workers, so that both may live with dignity, respect, and independence.