PHI Statement on Department of Labor’s Halt of Home Care Worker Protections
On July 25th, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a bulletin instructing Wage and Hour Division (WHD) field staff to immediately cease enforcing minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers.
The halt comes as the current Administration seeks to finalize a proposed rule that would permanently strip these protections from home care workers. Rather than waiting for its own rulemaking process to conclude, the DOL has preemptively abandoned its responsibilities toward this vital workforce.
Alarmingly, the DOL has ordered WHD staff not only to stop investigating new violations of the 2013 Final Rule that ensured labor protections for these workers, but to close all open cases regarding violations. This action removes federal accountability for wage theft in this sector and creates conditions for further exploitation. Further, it once again leaves home care workers without the basic employment rights that have been guaranteed to American workers since the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed into law in 1938.
Removing these fundamental labor rights will impact millions of home care workers—84% of whom are women, 67% people of color, and 32% immigrants. DOL’s actions will further challenge the ability of employers to recruit and retain these workers, while compromising the quality and continuity of care for individuals and families across the country.
Because WHD field staff have been instructed to abandon open cases, home care workers who were already pursuing FLSA claims through the proper channels will now find themselves without federal support. The message to home care workers is clear: they cannot rely on the federal government to uphold or enforce their basic employment rights.
“The Department of Labor’s decision leaves home care workers without the essential labor rights that so many of us take for granted,” said Jodi M. Sturgeon, President and CEO of PHI. “It represents an immediate abandonment of the DOL’s legal and moral duty to enforce federal regulations as they stand today, and it will ultimately have destabilizing consequences for an entire sector.”
DOL’s instructions to halt FLSA enforcement for home care workers—and the proposed rule to carve them out of FLSA completely—must be challenged through all available channels. PHI urges Congress to investigate the DOL’s abandonment of ongoing enforcement cases, and we urge state attorneys general to step up enforcement where federal authorities have abdicated their responsibility.
The DOL should sustain basic employment protections for home care workers, the largest occupational group in our country, by rejecting the proposed rule to strip their FLSA coverage. Finally, we call on the federal Administration and states to ensure that provider reimbursement rates are adequate to support fair, competitive wages that reflect the essential nature of this work. The home care workers who provide life-sustaining care deserve nothing less.
