WASHINGTON — The nation's home healthcare aides are not entitled to minimum wages or overtime pay under federal law, even if they work for private employers, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The 9-0 decision, which keeps in place a long-standing rule that denies minimum wages and overtime pay to those who provide "companionship services" at home, could trigger a move in Congress to amend the law.
With an estimated 1 million workers assisting the elderly and the disabled in their homes, unions and civil rights groups had urged the justices to scrap the rule; they say it deprives many of the nation's lowest-paid workers of a living wage.
They say a large percentage of these aides are women and minorities who often work all-night shifts. Yet, under federal labor law, they are viewed the same as part-time baby sitters.
A U.S. appeals court in New York had ruled that the minimum-wage law applied to those home-care workers who are employed by a private company or a public agency. If it had been upheld, this decision would have given overtime pay and minimum wages to the vast majority of the nation's home-care workers.
But the Supreme Court overturned the decision and said, in essence, that it is up to Congress to change the law. The Fair Labor Standards Act was first enacted in 1938, and is enforced through regulations set by the Labor Department.
The decision is "another blow to struggling, low-wage women," said Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. It means "profit-making companies can legally choose to pay home-care workers deplorably low wages or deny them just compensation for overtime."
The federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, and it will increase to $5.85 on July 24. Under a recently enacted measure, it will rise gradually to $7.25 per hour in July 2009. Workers who put in more than eight hours in a day receive 1 1/2 times their pay rate for overtime.
The impact of the ruling will vary by state, since many have their own minimum-wage and overtime laws. Union lawyers cited Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin as states with laws that ensure minimum wages and overtime for home-care workers.
In California, state law says "personal attendants" who are hired to provide home care are entitled to a minimum wage -- currently $7.50 per hour -- but they are not entitled to overtime pay, said Travis M. Gemoets, a Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in labor law.
