DOL Guidance Available for Families on Wage Payments to Home Care Workers

U.S. Department of Labor has a new guide book, “Paying Minimum Wage and Overtime to Home Care Workers,” to assist families in understanding updated rules for payment of home care workers. These rules became fully effective on January 1, 2016.

The goal of the recently finalized  “Home Care Final Rule” is to “make sure that home care workers have the same basic wage protections as most U.S. workers, including those who perform the same jobs in nursing homes and group homes.”   The rule applies “if you hire the worker directly, and no agency or other organization is involved,” but may also apply if you hired the worker through an agency.  

Employers must keep certain basic records for home care workers, and these records will be key to determining proper payment, especially for overtime:

1. Full name;

2. Social security number;

3. Home address;

4. Hours worked each day and total hours worked each workweek;

5. Total cash wages paid each week to the employee by employer, including any overtime pay; and

6. Any weekly amounts claimed by the employer as part of wages for housing or food provided to the employee/.

The guide explains special rules that apply if the paid care provider is a family member or  if the paid worker is “living in.”

In addition, the guideline explains the “narrow” exemption from minimum wage and overtime rules that applies for home care workers who provide only “companionship services.”  The key here is that the the worker can be spending no more than 20% of his or her working time on tasks such as assisting with personal care (bathing, dressing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and the worker is not performing any medically related tasks.