Fortune Highlights Key Factors Responsible for Poor Quality of Home Care Jobs
Home care workers have historically been carved out of federal and state labor protections, helping to make these jobs the “worst paid” jobs of the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the nation, reported Fortune on September 15.
“Collectively, as a society, we haven’t valued the work they do in the way we should,” explains PHI Policy Research Director Abby Marquand in the article, “The Worst Fastest-Growing Job in America.”
Home care workers have been excluded from federal minimum wage and overtime protections for decades, for example, as well as explicitly left out from state wage guarantees and benefits, the article explains.
Most recently, home care workers were excluded from legislation to give employees in California paid sick time, writes reporter Claire Zillman, who lists multiple labor laws that do not cover home care workers, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The demographics of the home care workforce “continue to put it at the short end of the pay and benefits stick,” Zillman reports.
— by Deane Beebe
