While we are on the topic of the federal minimum wage, I should take the chance to cover a topic I believe I first talked about a few weeks back. But what is going down is a court case that could determine whether or not certain employees of yours deserve to get the full minimum wage or not. This is not just any court case either—this case has gone all the way up to the Supreme Court of the land. What the Supreme Court will determine is whether or not home care workers—or provide services to the elderly and the disabled in the homes—should earn the minimum wage or not.
The Supreme Court will also decide whether or not these home care workers should get overtime as well, and that is the biggie. Most of these type of employees might make more than minimum wage—much more—but they work long hours and might not get paid overtime rates because of it and are losing out.
It is quite an issue for the employees and the employers. The field has a high rate of turnover, meaning employees do not last very long at one employer. That alone can be very costly for employers, because then they must constantly be looking for new talent, and then training that new talent over and over each time new employees start at their company. The industry also has shortages for talent because of the fact that people might be able to get better money, doing a less difficult job—all in part, say some of my sources, because home care workers do not get paid overtime or are not liable to get the minimum wage.
The opposite side of this of course—and this is what the employers are saying—is that giving home care workers overtime could cost them billions.
