Wage Protections Reinstated By Appeals Court

Obama Administration regulations guaranteeing overtime pay and minimum wage protection for nearly 2 million home health care workers were reinstated by an appeals court last week. Earlier this year a federal judge scrapped the rules, saying the Labor Department overstepped its authority. But last week the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously that DOL had the power to interpret the law to change a 30-year-old exemption that barred some home health care workers from wage and overtime protections. The at-home care industry has had a “dramatic transformation” since 1974 when the exemption for those workers was put in place, according to the Court.