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Related: About this forumAppeals Court Rules in Favor of Overtime, Minimum Wage for Home-Care Workers
Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Overtime, Minimum Wage for Home-Care Workers
A federal appeals court decision on Friday could mean big things for caretakers, workers rights groups, and labor unions across the country.
The appeals court ruled on Friday to reinstate Obama administration regulations that ensure overtime and minimum wage protections for home care workers who aid the elderly and disabled persons in the United States. These changes were originally instated in 2013 by the Department of Labor, when the department announced that it would expand the Fair Labor Standards Act to cover domestic home care aides and workers. Earlier this year a federal judge overturned this expansion, but the US Court of Appeals for the Washington, DC Circuit upheld that the Labor Department does have the ability to make these expansions to the law.
This workforce is overwhelmingly made up of women workers; the CDC reports that 90 percent of home care workers are female, and half are women of color. Furthermore, aides and home care workers make an average of $9.61 per hour, and one fifth of aides had no health insurance.
Twenty-one states and Washington, DC offer overtime protections or mandate state minimum wage protections for homecare workers. A handful of those states filed legal papers supporting the US Appeals Court decision last week.
This industry is rapidly growing. Almost 2.5 million people work as homecare workers, and that number largely represents those who work through a contracting agency. It is estimated that millions more work unofficially in this business, receiving pay under the table. Experts estimate that the number of jobs as personal care aides and home care aides will grow by up to fifty percent by 2020. This number partly represents the United States shifting trend from getting elderly care through nursing homes to getting at-home care.
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/08/24/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-overtime-minimum-wage-for-home-care-workers/
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Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Overtime, Minimum Wage for Home-Care Workers (Original Post)
niyad
Aug 2015
OP
niyad
(113,556 posts)2. about damned time!
Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)3. Wonderful! Now let's see farm workers get paid overtime
as they are not eligible. Although in CA they are supposed to get overtime after 60 hr weeks, but few see that extra pay.
niyad
(113,556 posts)5. that would be great.
Novara
(5,851 posts)4. It is unbelievably hard work. And emotional
I know someone who does this for a living and I am amazed at her fortitude.
niyad
(113,556 posts)6. it is incredibly difficult, emotionally and physically.