WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today praised proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that would strengthen the home care workforce, which is vital to providing care to older Americans and people with disabilities:
“A quality home care workforce is essential to the health and well-being of older Americans and people with disabilities. I have long advocated for fair pay and increased training opportunities for home-care workers, who are at the front lines of caring for the nation’s surging population over the age of 65. The proposal announced today is a welcome and necessary step toward ensuring workers are fairly compensated and properly trained to care for our aging population. Insufficient training, low wages and little or no benefits are problems that increase turnover rates and compromise care, and this is an important step forward.”
The Department of Labor today announced proposed rulemaking that would provide minimum wage and overtime protections for nearly two million workers who provide in-home care services for the elderly and infirm. The proposal will revise the companionship and live-in worker regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act to more clearly define the tasks that may be performed by an exempt companion, and to limit the companionship exemption to companions employed only by the family or household using the services. In addition, the Department proposed that third party employers, such as in-home care staffing agencies, could not claim the companionship exemption or the overtime exemption for live-in domestic workers, even if the employee is jointly employed by the third party and the family or household.
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