No, companionship services must be provided primarily for the benefit of the elderly person or person with an illness, injury, or disability who requires assistance in caring for himself or herself rather than for other members of that person’s household. However, the Department recognizes that sometimes assisting the person with IADLs may benefit other household members. For example, if a domestic service worker makes tuna salad for the person’s lunch and there is some tuna salad left over after the person has eaten lunch, the fact that another member of the household may eat the leftover tuna salad doesn’t change the fact that the tuna salad was prepared primarily for the elderly person or person with an illness, injury, or disability. Similarly, if the domestic service worker dusts a bedroom the person shares with another household member and the dusting was performed primarily for the benefit of the elderly person or person with an illness, injury or disability, performance of that task does not mean the worker is not performing companionship services. If a worker performs general household services unrelated to the care of the person, however, he or she is not performing companionship services and he or she must be paid at least the Federal minimum wage and overtime at one and a half times his or her regular rate of pay for all hours worked over to in the workweek.
October 2018
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