DOL Ruling Helps Home Care Workers
In mid-September, the DOL's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued a Final Rule that makes home care workers subject to the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime rules.
The FLSA exempts jobs related to "companionship services" from the FLSA provisions on minimum and overtime. In addition, live-in domestic workers are exempted from overtime requirements. Traditionally, employers have applied these exemptions to jobs in the home care industry. WHD estimates that this will affect some 1.9 million U.S. employees. The economic ripples will be significant, which explains why the effective date is not until January 1, 2015.
The Final Rule narrows the application of these exemptions. Under the regulation, the exemption will apply only non-professional workers providing "fellowship and protection for an elderly person or person with a disability, illness, or injury who requires assistance in caring for himself or herself." Fellowship occurs when an employee is "engaging the person in social, physical, and mental activities." Protection occurs when an employee is "present with the person in his or her home, or to accompany the person when outside of the home, to monitor the person's safety and well-being." To qualify for the stricter exemption, personal care services (e.g., dressing, grooming, preparing meals) cannot be greater than 20 percent of the total hours worked, and the worker cannot provide medical services usually performed by trained personnel.
WHD has created a web portal to explain the Final Rule.
Home care agencies will have a lot of work to do over the next 15 months in order to comply. They will need to obtain or modify their existing time and attendance systems and ensure that their payroll software properly pays home care employees. Infinisource can help with full-service payroll administration and timekeeping software and hardware.
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