Home Care Workers Encouraged to Know Their New Wage Rights
The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) has established a webpage to help home care workers prepare for a federal rule change that grants them new wage protections beginning October 13.
The webpage lists the workers’ new rights, which entitle them to minimum wage, time-and-a-half overtime pay, wages for on-the-job travel time, and more.
NDWA recommends that home care aides keep their own records on all the hours they work and their pay, and provides a “Work Hours Calendar” with time sheets to print out or download onto a phone app.
The calendar includes guidance on how home care aides can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor‘s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), noting that “WHD is committed to ensuring that workers in this country are paid properly and for all the hours they work, regardless of immigration status.”
The NDWA site also includes links to the Department of Labor’s website as well as other sites with more information about the rule change.
The NDWA, along with NELP, PHI, and other organizations, prepared a brief in September entitled “U.S. Department of Labor Home Care Rule: What’s Next?” (pdf). The brief provides workers, consumers, employers, and policymakers with the information needed to ensure a smooth implementation of the rule change.
— by Matthew Ozga
