1.5 Million Direct Care Workers Deserve Minimum Wage & Overtime Protections, Eldercare Workforce Alliance Tells DOL
July 18, 2011
National alliance urges Labor Secretary Solis to modernize companionship exemption of Fair Labor Standards Act
Washington, D.C. – The Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA) called upon U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to revise the current “companionship exemption” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Alliance urged extending the federal minimum wage and overtime protection under FLSA to the more than 1.5 million paid home- and community-based care workers, who provide essential services to our nation’s older adults and people with disabilities.
In a letter to Secretary Solis, the Alliance, a coalition of 28 organizations representing the nation’s leading advocates for older adults and their caregivers, noted that “within 20 years, one in five Americans will be over 65. As our nation ages, direct care workers – who are currently responsible for providing 70 to 80 percent of the paid hands-on long-term care for older adults – will not only be critical to providing quality care; they will also be the largest growing job sector in America.”
“Applying our nation’s labor laws to home and personal care workers,” the Alliance wrote, “means quality care for consumers and better support for family caregivers.”
The eldercare industry employs millions of individuals in the U.S., and is the fastest-growing employment sector within the health care industry, as more people require this care. However, poor working conditions, inadequate wages, benefits and training, as well as high turn-over make it a challenge to meet the increasing demand for care and services for older adults.
Almost half of all direct care workers in the U.S. live at or below the poverty level and receive public benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid.
The U.S. is already dealing with an acute shortage of direct care workers to provide long-term care because of a high turnover rate due to low pay and lack of access to health insurance. In the next 20 years, millions of Americans will need long-term health care, as the size of the population over 65 will nearly double.
“The Eldercare Workforce Alliance believes that an important part of improving the quality of care is ensuring the recruitment and retention of a quality workforce, which includes paying adequate wages.
“Strengthening home care occupations can also drive long-term economic growth, particularly within low-income communities,” the Alliance’s letter concluded.
June marked the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Long Island Care at Home v. Coke, which upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) authority to interpret the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) companionship exemption.
