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Lawmakers want federal rules to cover home workers


WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of Democratic senators on Thursday urged the Labor Department to reverse a Bush administration policy by extending federal wage and hour laws to home health care workers.

Most domestic workers are covered by laws governing minimum wage and overtime pay, but home workers that care for the elderly and disabled have long been considered exempt.

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The 15 lawmakers — led by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin — say the growing number of full-time home care workers serving an aging population deserve the same workplace rights as other employees.

"Home care, increasingly, has become not casual work performed by a friend or family member, but a full-time regular type of employment," the lawmakers said.

When Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1974 to cover household workers, it exempted baby sitters and companions for the ill or elderly.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court upheld the Labor Department's interpretation of the law to exclude home care workers. The lawmakers say that decision also gives the agency — under a new administration — the right to change that interpretation.

At her confirmation hearing earlier this year, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis indicated a willingness to consider rules that would expand the law to all home care workers. But the agency has not yet issued any notice of proposed rules on the issue.

A spokeswoman for Solis did not immediately return a request for comment.

The lawmakers argue that today's professional caretakers are not the same as neighborhood friends and baby sitters who may provide informal child or elderly care from time to time. The number of full-time home care workers has surged with the growing number of retirees and more people are deciding to have long-term care in their homes instead of institutions.

Health services companies that provide home care workers have opposed any expansion of hour and wage rules to their employees, arguing that it would drive up costs for elderly clients who can ill afford it.

Unions representing home care workers have been pushing for changes in the law to cover those employees.

Many states already have minimum wage and overtime laws that apply to home health care workers.

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