Respect for Home Care Workers

A rule proposed last December by President Obama and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) would extend basic labor protections to home care workers.

Since 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act has guaranteed American workers minimum wage and overtime pay. For all those years, home care workers have been 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. DCA is grateful to DOL, to our hardworking DCA Champions and allies who advocated for the rule, and to the thousands of people who participated in the public comment period. More than 26,000 people commented on the rule, and the vast majority--about 80 percent--were in favor of it. Please join us now in reminding the Obama Administration of their commitment to this issue and urging them to enact the rule without further delay.