For so long, home health care providers were not only underrated, but were also underpaid including their overtime benefits in comparison to their institutional counterparts. Instead of hourly pay, that would allow a home health care provider to earn overtime, employers would instead make home health care providers compensation salaried, which would have the home health care worker working more hours, yet still receiving the same amount of pay. Though this seemed to go unchallenged for many years, in January 2015, the federal government changed the home health care provider laws to benefit the home health care workers.
What is the Home Health Care Provider Law?
Effective January 1, 2015, legislation was passed that entitled home health care workers to be paid the federal minimum wage as well as overtime pay. Home health care is a wide range of health services that can be given in your home for illness or for injury, usually affecting the elderly, sick, and disabled. Home health care workers had been exempt from overtime laws, however, this regulation, benefiting over 200 million workers, aims at helping to ensure that home health care workers receive the same protections that are provided to other workers throughout the United States.
The regulation states that if you are home care agency or other third party employer, you are required to pay overtime pay to any direct worker you jointly or solely employ, regardless of the worker’s duties. These workers include, certified nursing assistants, home health aides, personal care aids, as well as caregivers and companions. To be effective, employees must receive overtime pay for any hours that are worked over 40 in a workweek in a rate that is not less than time and one half the worker’s regular pay rate.
Lastly, employees who spend more than 20% of their time in a workweek assisting with a patient’s daily living such as grooming, feeding, meal prep, and assisting with medication and medical care are entitled to overtime pay. However, if you are employed only by the person you assist or that person’s family then, depending on your duties, you may not be entitled to receive overtime pay. It is important to note that in New York, overtime coverage for all companions employed by third party agencies receive overtime at a reduced rate of 150% of the minimum wage and if the employee is a live-in worker you do not receive overtime until you have worked over 44 hours instead of the requisite 40. Therefore, if you have any concerns or questions about your wage or hours you should not hesitate to reach out to an experienced New York overtime lawyer because it could be invaluable to your case.
Need Legal Advice?
It can be difficult and frustrating to know that, though you may work more hours than other people within the same field, that you are not being fully compensated for it. However, you do not have to fight to vindicate your rights alone. Contact The Law Offices of Joseph & Norinsberg LLC at (212) JUSTICE or [email protected] so that we can help strategize about the best possible outcomes of your case. We are here to help you!
