U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $1.2 million in wages for home healthcare workers in four facilities in Texas and Louisiana.
The 599 workers work in the home healthcare industry where most workers are women and people of color, Southwest Regional Wage and Hour Administrator Betty Campbell said in a Nov. 16 DOL news release.
"The majority of the home healthcare industry's workers are women of color and despite the critical work they do – and the tremendous compassion and commitment they show – their hourly wage rates remain among the lowest in the nation," Campbell said in the release. "While our nation honors their service during National Home Health Care Month in November, the U.S. Department of Labor is determined to make sure employers respect their rights as workers, including the right to be paid proper and full wages as dictated by federal law."
Ace Primary Homecare in Pharr, Texas; Fernandez Care Assistance in San Juan, Texas; and Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans in Laredo, Texas, failed to properly pay employees, as did Guardian Angels Care Services in Alexandria, La., according to the news release.
Ace Primary Homecare, which allegedly adjusted employees' pay rates to pay straight time for overtime hours worked, owed 400 employees $841,244 in overtime back wages, the release reported. Fernandez Care Assistance, which allegedly did not pay additional overtime wages to 47 hourly employees, owed employees $122,944 in overtime back wages.
Guardian Angels Care Services, which allegedly misclassified workers as independent contractors and paid straight-time wages for all hours worked, owed 129 workers $160,477 in overtime back wages, according to the release. The Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans in Laredo, Texas, paid employees for up to 40 hours a week but rarely paid overtime. It reportedly 23 employees $82,497 in overtime back wages.
"Investigators found that, if employees stayed on the clock beyond 40 hours, the employer would adjust its records to indicate no more than 40 hours of work," the news release said. "In addition, employees would clock out and resume working because they were expected to complete the assigned work and knew their time would be adjusted because their employer would not approve overtime."
The four facilities' alleged treatment of its home healthcare workers are not isolated cases, according to the news release. In fiscal year 2021, DOL's Wage and Hour Division identified almost $14 million in back wages owed to more than 17,000 healthcare workers. It's common for the division to find employers who fail to pay overtime, misclassify workers as independent contractors and not paying for time in work-related travel or for pre- and post-shift work.
In September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 664,000 healthcare and social services workers quit their jobs and the home healthcare field had more than 2 million openings, the release reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. population continues to age and with his grows demand for home healthcare services. Employment in the industry is expected to grow 16% through 2030, an additional 2.6 million jobs, the fastest average for all occupations, according to the release.
