Massachusetts to Implement FLSA Overtime Rules for PCAs in 2016
Personal care attendants (PCAs) employed through Massachusetts’s consumer-directed home care program will earn a time-and-a-half wage for working overtime hours, beginning January 1.
In a memo, the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) announced that, in compliance with the federal rule change extending labor protections to home care workers, PCAs in the MassHealth program will automatically receive time-and-a-half overtime wages. They will also be paid for time spent traveling between clients.
The memo also includes information about a series of public listening sessions that the EOHHS is holding to “gather information from PCA consumers, PCAs, interested stakeholders and the general public on how to improve the PCA program in a way that ensures consumers receive all of their authorized PCA services while minimizing the need for PCAs to work overtime.”
The first session will be held November 30.
The move by Massachusetts represents the latest state effort to comply with the U.S. Department of Labor Home Care Final Rule.
States such as New York and California have also announced plans in recent weeks to comply with the new home care wage regulations, while Kansas has asked that more money be allocated in the budget to implement the rule.
The U.S. Department of Labor will begin full enforcement of the rule change on January 1.
— by Matthew Ozga
