Pay Proposal May Affect In-Home Care Firms

Since 1974, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was established, companion workers were deemed exempt from federal minimum wage and overtime laws.

But longer hours and more required care has prompted the U.S. Labor Department to propose a big change two years.

The proposal would force employers to pay home care workers, or companions, at least the minimum wage

The Fair Labor Standards law has excluded those workers for 74 years.

According to the Labor Department, workers are “performing duties and working in circumstances that are markedly different than when the companionship services regulations were promulgated” and “the nature of employment and the scope of duties are also different.”

NewsChannel 21 contacted the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, but a spokeswoman declined to comment because the proposal is still in a public comment review period. There’s no word yet on when or if the changes would occur.

But the proposal is not something in-home care agencies like Evergreen In-Home Care Services in Bend support.

“It will probably double the cost of what we are charging consumers because we will have to pay minimum wage,” Evergreen CEO Nancy Webre said Wednesday.

Evergreen serves Central Oregon with 150 customers currently receiving its services. It also employs 65 caregivers.

“When we provide 24-hour care in the home for elderly people, that’s where they want to be, and they need round-the-clock care,” Webre said.

Webre says the change would affect the way the company pays their employees — from a set, shift rate to at least minimum wage, and to pay overtime.

It also would cause their charges to jump.

“It will affect for those living on a fixed income. It will affect their pocketbook, It also affects the number of caregivers that we send into a home,” Webre said.

Webre says the overtime provision could nearly double the number of caregivers they have working at a customer’s home.

“When you increase the amount of caregivers in a home, what you lose is that continuity of staffing,” she said.

The more people that are in a home, Webre says, the more room there is for errors, such as medication administration.

“It would be great to keep the companion (exemption), keep us exempt from the minimum wage and overtime, so we can continue to provide the companionship services,” Webre said.