PHI Examines Impact of Proposed FLSA Rule on California IHSS Program
PHI has published a new issue brief in its Value the Care! series. The briefs provide analyses on how revising the companionship exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act would impact home care consumers, workers, providers, and other stakeholders.
In “High-Hour Consumers in the California IHSS Program: Impact of Compensating Overtime Hours,” the seventh brief in the series, PHI examines California’s In-Home Supportive Services Program — the largest publicly funded home care program in the nation.
The researchers found that 90 percent of the program’s consumers are not authorized to receive home care assistance for more than 37 hours per week.
The IHSS Program provides services and support to 415,000 primarily low-income consumers each month who must be aged, blind, or disabled to qualify for the program.
In California, the median hourly wages for home health aides and personal care aides in 2011 were $10.33 and $10.23, respectively, according to the PHI State Data Center.
The findings from the California IHSS Program analysis concur with another PHI analysis (pdf) in the series that found that, nationally, less than 10 percent of home care workers report working more than 40 hours per week.
— by Deane Beebe
