Respect for Home Care Workers

Tell DOL home care workers deserve minimum wage and overtime protections

President Obama and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) have announced a proposed rule that would extend basic labor protections to home care workers. DOL has now collected comments from the public on the rule and is deciding whether to enact it as is, with some changes, or not at all.

Since 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act has guaranteed American workers several basic rights, including minimum wage and overtime pay. However, home care workers are exempted from these basic protections, considered mere “companions."

In 2007, a home care worker named Evelyn Coke (pictured) challenged the companionship exemption in court. Coke had provided essential care to the elderly for years for just $7 an hour, sometimes working as many as three consecutive 24-hour periods with no overtime pay. Her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that it was up to Congress or DOL, not the courts, to change the rule.

In publishing the proposed rule, DOL has taken a critical step to finally end this injustice.

Learn more about the fight to grant basic labor rights to home care workers.