A Step toward Justice for Home-Care Workers

Today the Obama Administration proposed new regulations that would provide federal minimum wage and overtime protections to nearly two million low-wage home-care workers.

Who are these workers? They are nearly all women and disproportionately women of color. They provide a lifeline for the elderly and disabled, yet their stressful and physically demanding jobs come without the basic protections of the federal minimum wage and overtime law. The typical home health care worker employed on a full-time, full-year basis earns just $21,000 a year.

They are women like Pauline Beck, a home-care worker that then Senator Obama spent the day with in 2007. That was the same year the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the regulation denying home-care workers minimum wage and overtime protection—a decision we decried at the time as “another blow to struggling, low-wage women.”

So what’s the next step? Once the rule is published in the Federal Register, interested parties will be invited to submit comments at www.regulations.gov. We will keep you posted on how to submit your own comments. The growing home-care industry will surely be expressing its opposition to this proposed rule, so it will be important for those who want fair pay for this overwhelmingly female workforce to register their opinions. For more information, including the proposed rule and a fact sheet and frequently asked questions, visit the Department of Labor's new resource page at www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/companionNPRM.htm.