Better pay for home health-care providers
The Labor Department plans to extend minimum-wage and overtime-pay rules to home health-care workers.
The Labor Department announced this week that it would extend its minimum-wage and overtime-pay rules to the country’s nearly 2 million home health-care workers. Until now the workers—typically hired to bathe, dress, and feed elderly or disabled clients—were placed, like baby sitters, in the “companionship services” category, which is exempt from minimum-wage laws. Unions hailed the ruling, while industry officials warned that the move would make home health care unaffordable for many. Labor Secretary Tom Pérez said better pay would “stabilize and professionalize” a line of work that has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing occupations as the population ages.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
A running list of RFK Jr.'s controversies
In Depth The man atop the Department of Health and Human Services has had no shortage of scandals over the years
By Brigid Kennedy
-
Film reviews: Sinners and The King of Kings
Feature Vampires lay siege to a Mississippi juke joint and an animated retelling of Jesus' life
By The Week US
-
Music reviews: Bon Iver, Valerie June, and The Waterboys
Feature "Sable, Fable," "Owls, Omens, and Oracles," "Life, Death, and Dennis Hopper"
By The Week US