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The Workers Who Are Left Out Of Their State’s Minimum Wage Hike
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/25/3431054/home-care-workers-minimum-wage/
People who work inside the homes of the elderly or disabled are being left out of many higher state minimum wages.
On January 1, 2015, new federal rules from the Department of Labor will take effect to end a loophole called the “companionship exemption,” which had been interpreted to mean that these workers weren’t covered by the Fair Labor Standard Act’s minimum wage and overtime rules that nearly all workers enjoy. That will mean the country’s home care workers, who feed, bathe, and otherwise care for their clients, should all be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 starting next year.
But some state laws leave them out of any wages that might go higher than that. Eighteen — Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming — exempt home care workers, according to an analysis of state laws by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). In these states, “the worker would not be covered by the higher state minimum wage,” Sarah Leiberstein, staff attorney with NELP, told ThinkProgress.
Among that group, some wages have already been raised, while efforts are underway in others. Delaware has already raised its minimum wage to $8.25 by 2015, Rhode Island raised its wage to $8 an hour starting January 1, and West Virginia raised its wage to $8.75 by 2016. But home care workers won’t get the benefit of those increases. And there are efforts underway in six others: a ballot initiative in Alaska for a $9.75 wage by 2016, a ballot push in Idaho for a $9.80 wage by 2017, a push from New Hampshire’s governor for a higher minimum wage, a bill in Utah for a $10.25 wage, a bill in Vermont for a $10.10 wage by January, and a bill in Virginia for a $9.25 wage by 2015. If any of these were to become law, the home care workers in those states would not be covered.