No major revisions have been made to the domestic service regulations in 38 years.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) was passed in 1938 to provide minimum wage and overtime protections for workers, to prevent unfair competition among businesses based on subminimum wages, and to spread employment by requiring employers whose employees work excessive hours to compensate employees at one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40.
The FLSA did not initially protect workers employed directly by households in domestic service, such as cooks, housekeepers, maids, and gardeners. However, the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime compensation provisions did extend to domestic service workers employed by enterprises covered by the Act, such as gardeners employed by covered landscaping companies or a cook employed by a covered caterer, even if their work was in or about a private household.
Congress explicitly extended FLSA coverage to “domestic service” workers in 1974, amending the Act to apply to employees performing household services in a private home, including those domestic service workers employed directly by households or by companies too small to be covered as enterprises under the Act.
While Congress expanded protections to “domestic service” workers, the 1974 amendments also exempted certain domestic service workers from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime provisions. Under this exemption, casual babysitters and domestic service workers employed to provide “companionship services” to elderly persons or persons with illnesses, injuries, or disabilities are not required to be paid the minimum wage or overtime pay. Congress also created an exemption only from the overtime pay requirement for live-in domestic service workers.
The Department issued final regulations in 1975 implementing these exemptions. No major revisions have been made to the domestic service regulations in 38 years.
October 2018
Tags: Home Care
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