Home Health Care Workers 

– Overtime Rights

Home health workers (also referred to as home health aides, certified nursing assistants, personal care aides, and companions) provide an invaluable service to others who cannot care for themselves such as persons who are aged or infirm, disabled, or injured. These workers perform duties such as personal care, (assisting with feeding, dressing, bathing, etc.), meal preparation, shopping, light house-cleaning, companionship, and other standard every day needs. They often work demanding schedules which consist of long hours, well above a standard 40-hour workweek.

Previously, under the federal law, home health workers were excluded from basic minimum wage and overtime protections provided by Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the federal law that regulates how employees should be paid. That law changed in 2015 making these workers eligible for pay of an overtime premium of 1.5 times their hourly rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Regardless, some home health care agencies continue to pay their workers on a straight time, or other basis, denying them overtime compensation they deserve under the changed law.

Many states also have their own laws that provide additional minimum wage and overtime provisions to home health workers, including but not limited to, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. In these states, the laws generally provide that most hourly-paid home health workers must receive 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for overtime hours they work.

Our wage and hour lawyers have handled several cases to recover overtime pay for home health aides and are dedicated to fighting for fair pay for these important workers. If you have questions about this or any investigation or would like to discuss your potential claims, please contact us.