|
Supreme Court Rules Against Overtime, Minimum Wage for Home Care Aides
June 20, 2007
''A retired home health aide who sued her employer for unpaid overtime lost big this week in the Supreme Court -- and so did fairness and the health care system,'' said an editorial in the June 15 New York Times.
The Court's 9-0 ruling on Long Island Care at Home v. Coke declared that home care aides who work for agencies and other ''third-party'' employers are not required to receive minimum wage or overtime protection under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The June 11 ruling did not address the question of whether it was fair to exempt home care workers from FLSA rules. Instead, it focused on whether the U.S. Department of Labor had been correct in saying that Congress didn't intend to include these workers when it extended the FLSA in 1974 to cover many previously uncovered 'domestic service' workers.
The ruling ''underscores how unprepared we are to care for the millions of seniors who will want to live at home instead of institutions,'' said Gerry Hudson, a vice president of the Service Employees International Union, in a Washington Post article on the ruling and its likely aftermath. ''If we are to avert a home-care crisis, we must invest in living wages and health care coverage.''
The court's decision was not necessarily the final word on the issue. Individual states can cover these workers under their own fair labor standards, and Congress may make a different determination as to whether these workers are entitled to FLSA coverage.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
< back to news |
