On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a rule by the Department of Labor requiring that home care aides be paid the minimum wage. But that doesn’t mean the vast majority of seniors receiving those services are necessarily going to feel it in their pocketbooks.
That’s because 83 percent of in-home services for the elderly are paid for by Medicare and Medicaid, said Caitlin Connolly, a consumer advocate with the National Employment Law Project who coordinated the Home Care Fair Pay campaign.
A leader of the trade group that unsuccessfully sued to overturn the rule warned that some of the elderly and their families could see out-of-pocket costs rise by over 20 percent for some services. The Supreme Court refused to review a lower court’s decision on the rule.
For home-care assisted living services that are private pay, Connolly said she hopes the agencies that provide the workers will absorb the extra costs since the charge for customers can be twice the hourly rate they pay their employees.
Often, home care daily living care services are private pay.
The concern of home care companies is primarily about overtime costs, since most of their employees already receive pay at the minimum wage or higher.
Phil Bongiorno, executive director for the Home Care Association of America, whose companies provide these services, said his member companies are adjusting shifts so they won’t trigger overtime.
“Our concern is multiple caregivers is not in the best interest of some clients, like seniors with dementia,” he said.
He said his members are also concerned the prospects of higher costs from overtime pay could drive the elderly and their families to the underground labor market, which could result in inferior care.
Bongiorno added there is legislation in Congress that would reinstate the exemptions of home-care workers from minimum wage and overtime rules.