During Care at Home Month in November, the department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) salutes home care workers who deliver vital services to some of our communities’ most vulnerable people. These unsung heroes care for those who can’t always take care of themselves, including older adults, people with disabilities and children with special needs. Yet, home care workers are some of the lowest paid in the country.
Recognizing these workers are vulnerable to wage theft and exploitation from their employers, the division launched an outreach and education initiative that strategically targets employees to raise awareness of their workplace rights. It focuses on home care workers’ rights to minimum wage and overtime pay and how to file a complaint if they believe their rights have been violated. The initiative also includes enforcement of overtime, minimum wage, and other worker protections enforced by WHD. The initiative focuses on misclassification of home care workers as independent contractors, which is common in the industry.
In the past fiscal year, the initiative has recovered nearly $53 million in back wages and damages for care workers, which is part of the $1 billion restored to workers by the division during the Biden-Harris administration.
The numbers are only part of the story. Our initiative has positively impacted workers lives, like home health aide Joely Maniscalco in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. She cares for people by assisting with bathing, eating and other activities. The division recovered more than $1,000 in back wages after investigators found that Maniscalco was a victim of wage theft by two different employers. “I am grateful to the Wage and Hour Division. They helped me understand my rights as a home care worker,” she said. Maniscalco was facing eviction and was able to use the back wages to secure a new apartment.
Home care workers are sometimes victim to more than just wage theft, like Franklin Lee Bennett, who faced retaliation from his employer while caring for Alzheimer’s patients at an assisted living facility in Manchester, Tennessee. After making a request for wages he was rightfully owed, Franklin’s supervisor claimed he was “unable to maintain a harmonious working relationship” and had an “argumentative attitude.” Eventually, the division secured $30,000 for him, which he used to pay debts and take a vacation.
This November, the division is proud to celebrate and spotlight home care workers and the significant impact of their work. Like all workers, they deserve fair pay for a hard day’s work and we will do our part to ensure just that.
Jessica Looman is the administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Follow the division on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
