The Hill News

Home health care occupations are projected to grow more than any others through 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the workers who fill these jobs aren’t covered by our nation’s most basic labor laws. They should be.

The exclusion of an estimated 1.7 million home care workers from the federal minimum wage and overtime law has depressed wages in the industry and led to extremely long hours for those workers who provide round-the-clock care. These are the caregivers who get our grandmothers out of bed in the morning and facilitate the feeding tubes of our disabled neighbors. It’s time to close the loopholes that exempt them from federal wage and hour laws â€" laws most of us take for granted.

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