Trump Administration’s Proposed Labor Rules Will Strip Wage and Overtime Protections from Millions of Home Care Workers

PHI is deeply concerned by the Department of Labor’s (DOL) newly-proposed rule, which would strip federal minimum wage and overtime protections from millions of home care workers.

While limited Medicaid reimbursement rates for home care services create operating challenges for provider employers, requiring home care workers themselves to shoulder more of the burden of an inadequately funded system by denying them minimum wage and overtime protections will further destabilize an already undervalued workforce.

If enacted, the DOL’s proposal would ultimately result in increased workforce turnover, additional replacement costs for employers, and reduced quality and continuity of care for older adults and people with disabilities. This rule change would reanimate a legacy of exclusion with roots in the Jim Crow era, which deliberately denied protections to a workforce that remains predominantly women (84 percent) and people of color (67 percent). Immigrants make up 32 percent of the home care workforce, nearly double their representation in the total U.S. labor force.

This dedicated workforce provides care and support critical to the health and well-being of their clients. At a time when the sector must attract millions of new workers to meet the demands of a rapidly aging population, this rule would make these vital jobs less tenable, worsening instability and ultimately harming the quality and continuity of care for older adults and people with disabilities.

For nearly a decade, PHI contributed strongly to research and advocacy efforts to establish federal wage and overtime protections for home care workers, including successfully defending the rule against industry lawsuits. The current DOL proposal threatens to erase that hard-won progress. PHI is once again mobilizing with partners, and we have signed on to an amicus brief defending these protections to fight this detrimental reversal and protect the rights of an essential workforce.

Counter to the current Administration’s claims, minimum wage and overtime protections have improved the quality of home care jobs as well as the quality and continuity of care provided to older adults and people with disabilities in their homes.

“This proposed rule change is an attempt to balance the books at the expense of the women, people of color, and immigrants who perform essential, life-sustaining work, requiring them to do so without fair compensation,” said Jodi M. Sturgeon, PHI President and CEO. “We urge the public to join PHI and our allies in demanding that the Department of Labor immediately withdraw this harmful rule.”