In a pair of recent decisions, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has struck down Department of Labor (DOL) regulations designed to provide wage protections for home care workers.  Challenging the regulations were the Home Care Association of America and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.  The first decision, issued December 22, 2014, rejected the DOL’s decision to remove an exemption for third-party employers of home care workers from Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime requirements.   Removal of the exemption would have required home care agencies to pay minimum wages to employees who provide domestic companionship services to seniors and individuals with disabilities and to pay overtime wages to live-in domestic service employees.  Home Care Association of America v. Weil, 2014 WL 7272406 (D.D.C. 2014).  The second decision rejected the DOL’s narrowing of the definition of “companionship services.”  Home Care Association of America v. Weil, 2015 WL 181712 (D.D.C. 2015)

The FLSA exemption in question had been in effect for over 40 years.  The plaintiffs argued that the changes are inconsistent with the statutory language of the FLSA and with Congress’s intent.  The FLSA provisions in question date from the 1974 amendments extending minimum wage and overtime protection to domestic service employees.  The extension included exemptions for specified types of domestic service work, including “any employee employed in domestic service employment to provide companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Secretary).” 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(15).  The 1974 amendment to the FLSA also included an exemption from overtime pay requirements for “any employee who is employed in domestic service in a household and who resides in such household.” 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(21) The original regulations had extended the companionship services exemption to third-party employers of these workers, such as home health agencies.  It had also defined companionship services broadly.  Notably, this implementing regulation actually made the situation worse for companionship services workers employed by large home health agencies:  these workers had been covered by a different section of the FLSA before the 1974 amendment bringing domestic service workers within the scope of the statute.