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.
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