Home health care workers denied wage protection
This week, in Long Island Care at Home v. Coke, the U.S. Supreme Court held that home health workers are not entitled to overtime pay under federal wage laws. The Court held that in enacting amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Congress left the definition of who falls within exemptions to the determination of the Department of Labor in the regulations it enacts to carry out the FLSA. The Department had determined that home health workers are exempt from the wage protections regardless of who pays the worker’s wages. Accordingly, the home health worker, who was paid by a third party to act as a companion to elderly and infirm men and women, was not entitled to overtime pay.
