It’s time to end the exclusion of home care workers from minimum wage and overtime protections.
Timeline
1938 – The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is enacted to ensure a minimum standard of living for workers through the provision of a minimum wage, overtime pay, and other protections — but domestic workers are excluded.
1974 – The FLSA is amended to include domestic employees such as housekeepers, full-time nannies, chauffeurs, and cleaners. However, persons employed as “companions to the elderly or infirm” remain excluded from the law.
1975 – The Department of Labor interprets the “companionship exemption” as including all direct-care workers in the home, even those employed by third parties such as home care agencies.
2001 – The Clinton DOL finds that “significant changes in the home care industry” have occurred and issues a “notice of proposed rulemaking” that would have made important changes to the exemption. The revision process is terminated, however, by the incoming Bush Administration.
2007 – The US Supreme Court, in a case brought by New York home care attendant Evelyn Coke, upholds the DOL’s authority to define exceptions to FLSA.
TODAY – PHI and other concerned organizations are calling on DOL Secretary Hilda Solis to end the companionship exemption.
PHI Contact
Steven Edelstein
PHI National Policy Director
(718) 402-7413
SEdelstein@PHInational.org
SUMMARY: PHI and other concerned organizations are calling on DOL Secretary Hilda Solis to provide home care aides with minimum wage and overtime protections.
The US Supreme Court made it clear in 2007 that this exclusion, part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), can be ended at any time by the Secretary of Labor.
The Coke ruling was 1146 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes, 53 seconds ago and home care aides are still excluded from these important labor protections.
Evelyn Coke (1934-2009) Plaintiff in Long Island Care at Home v. Coke
News / Media Coverage
Newsday op-ed | “OPINION: Home health workers need more pay protections” | July 22, 2010
Honors Evelyn Coke on the one year anniversary of her death and calls for an end to the “companionship exemption.”
New York Times letter | “Home Care Workers” | June 9, 2010
PHI President Steven Dawson argues that home care workers deserve federal labor law protection.
New York Times editorial | “Domestic Workers’ Rights” | June 6, 2010
Noting that home health aides, “still lack the right to a minimum wage and overtime pay,” the Times calls on New York lawmakers to reconcile and pass the domestic workers’ bill of rights for caregivers and other domestic workers in the state.
New York Times letter| “Home Health Workers” | February 7, 2010
PHI President Steven Dawson writes that it is time for the Labor Department to “provide home care aides minimal work force protections through the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
New York Times editorial | “Lilly and Evelyn” | January 28, 2010
The Times calls on President Obama to undo the companionship exemption through a directive to the Labor Department. “If he does not act,” says the Times, ” Congress should introduce and pass, without delay, the Evelyn Coke Fair Pay for Caregivers Act.”
New York Times | “Evelyn Coke, Home Care Aide Who Fought Pay Rule, Is Dead at 74” | August 9, 2009
The Times writes, “She loved the work, but she earned only around $7 an hour and got no overtime pay. For years Ms. Coke, a single mother of five, quietly grumbled, and then, quite uncharacteristically, rebelled.”
New York Times editorial | “Fair Pay for Caregivers” | July 8, 2009
The Times calls for home care aides to receive minimum wage and overtime protections noting that the regulation can be reversed at any time by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
Press Release from Senator Harkin | “Harkin, Senators Urge Fairness for Home Care Workers” | June 11, 2009
A letter from fifteen U.S. Democratic senators urges DOL Secretary Hilda Solis to extend federal wage and hour laws to cover the nation’s estimated 1.5 million home health-care workers.
Eldercare Workforce Alliance letter | “EWA Says ‘Companionship Exemption’ Policy Needs Rethinking” | March 27, 2009
The 25 member organizations of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA) sent this letter (pdf) to DOL Secretary Solis and HHS Secretary Sebelius urging them to extend federal wage and overtime protection to home care workers.
New York Times editorial | “Caring for Caregivers” | January 27, 2009
The Times says, “It is unconscionable that workers who are entrusted with the care of some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens are themselves unprotected by basic labor standards.”
PHI letter to Obama Administration| “Request that the U.S. DOL revise interpretation of the ‘Companionship Exemption’ for Home Care Workers” | November 21, 2008
Following the 2008 election, PHI sent this letter to the Obama Administration (pdf) calling for an end to the “companionship exemption” for home care workers.
PHI Testifies on Home Health Care Act
On October 25, 2007, PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey testified before Congress in favor of the Fair Home Health Care Act (S. 2061/H.R. 3582). (see PHI’s press release)
The bill was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and would reword the 1974 amendment to extend federal wage and hour protection to home care aides. If enacted, only home care workers employed on a casual basis and “live-in” aides would be exempt.
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U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Ave., NW
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