In a monumental change for licensed healthcare professionals who deliver services to disabled and senior citizens, the Department of Labor announced this week that starting in 2015 they will require minimum wages and overtime protections be extended to home-based “direct care” workers.
Why does this change matter?
The nearly 2 million U.S. home care workers assist adults, disabled people and seniors who are either recovering after a hospital stay or need extra support living at home. Until now, home care workers have been listed under the “companionship exemption” of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1974. This exemption meant employers did not have to pay companion workers — everything from babysitters to home care workers — a minimum wage or offer them overtime pay.
Though the national average for home-based caregivers is already above the national minimum wage, the extension of these protections will have a huge impact on the industry and the disabled community — particularly for oft-marginalized workers within the industry. The home care workforce, which has grown tremendously in recent years, its comprised of 90 percent women and 50 percent minority workers, according to data from the Department of Labor. In addition to providing better wages for these workers, the law also ensures the rights of many senior citizens and people with disabilities to avoid moving into institutionalized care.
This change is a promising shift for home care workers across the nation, but here at the University these workers already have it better than most. Nationally, the median pay for home care workers is $9.70 per hour.
But home care workers at the U.Va. Continuum Home Health Care, the University Health System’s own home health agency, are Medical Center employees where the minimum wage is $11.30 per hour, according to public information officer Eric Swensen. University home health workers are also already are paid time-and-a-half for overtime, Swensen said, which is the national standard that will soon be adopted for all home care workers.
Minimum wage and overtime pay are fundamental rights of all workers, and have already been provided to most U.S. employees. The initial proposal to remove home care workers from the companionship exemption, which the for-profit home care industry has been lobbying strongly against, was announced in December 2011. The extension of these legal protections will improve the lives of large swaths of that 2 million-person workforce, however, and because the changes will not be implemented for 15 months, families using home care workers and state Medicaid programs have time to adjust.
Read More
Board of Visitors’ Health System Board approves University Medical Center contracts and credentials
By Lexie Stadler | March 3, 2024The University requested approval from the Board on proposed contracts with Cardinal Health LLC, a pharmaceutical company that will provide CAR T-cell therapies — a therapy used to treat cancer.
Virginia Senate passes bill to legalize medically-assisted deaths in 21-19 vote
By Zackary Holt and Caroline Hagood | February 26, 2024The House, which also holds a democratic majority, has referred the bill to the Committee for Courts of Justice for further consideration.
U.Va. Remote Area Medical chapter focuses on increasing healthcare access
By Saumya Sharma | December 13, 2023RAM members volunteer at clinics across the Southeast to provide free healthcare to local communities.
