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FACT SHEET: Compensating Home Care Aides on 24-Hour Shifts

February 13, 2014

New York State home care employers can turn to a new PHI employer advisory for guidance on how to compensate home care workers who provide 24-hour care.

The advisory examines the practice of assigning aides to 24-hour shifts and explains the various factors that determine the number of work hours for which the aide must be compensated and the required hourly wage.

Among the key factors affecting compensation are sleep and meal breaks, overtime rules, and New York’s wage parity law.

According to the New York Department of Labor, home care aides working 24-hour shifts must be compensated for at least 13 hours of work. This presumes that the aide is given three one-hour work-free breaks for meals, and is provided a full eight hours of sleep.

The employer advisory is part of a PHI fact sheet series on Medicaid Redesign in New York.

— by Matthew Ozga

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