Home healthcare workers often work irregular hours. They may also work at night or at weekends. Some weeks they may need to work for longer hours and on other weeks work fewer hours.
When a waged employee works for more than 40 hours in a week, they should be paid on overtime rates. These are one and a half times whatever the normal hourly rate of pay is.
Unfortunately, some employers do not pay the correct rate of overtime. Some may not even pay the minimum wage or pay the correct number of hours worked.
This is called wage theft. State and federal labor laws regulate what employers are expected to pay their waged employees. If you have discovered that you haven’t been paid properly, your employer may have violated one of these laws.
You can file a complaint with the Department of Labor or seek help from an employment lawyer to force your employer to pay the correct amount of pay.
Eligibility for Overtime
The Fair labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the main federal legislation that regulates what employers are expected to pay their waged employees.
The FLSA requires all employers to pay overtime at time and a half (150% of normal rates) for any hours that an employee works over 40 hours in a working week of 7 days.
Failure to do so could be a violation of the FLSA and the employer could be ordered to pay any unpaid wages and other damages.
The state you work in as a home healthcare worker may have its own state labor laws. Sometimes these are less stringent than the FLSA but often more generous.
State labor laws may include an 8 hour day in overtime rules so that any employee who works for more than 8 hours in a day is paid overtime.
If you are paid the minimum wage it will be the higher of either the state or federal ($7.25 an hour) minimum wages. This will also be used to calculate what you are owed if you work overtime.
Gathering Evidence of Eligibility
There are several steps you can take to ensure you have proof that you are being underpaid.
- Make sure you double check your employment agreement if you have one to find out what your hourly wage is.
- Check the state labor laws on minimum rates of pay and overtime as they apply to you. Remember that if you are in a state where the minimum is $8 an hour; that is what you should get paid as a minimum, not the federal minimum.
- It’s unlikely you are on any kind of salary, but if you are, overtime laws may not apply.
- The earlier you start making a careful note of how many hours you have been working the better. You may have a time sheet you can copy, but also check what it says on your pay stubs compared to the record you are keeping.
- Keep all your pay stubs to show how much you have been paid.
What to Do Next
You should talk to your employer or whoever is in charge of paying your wages before filing a complaint or taking any legal action.
If you show evidence that you have been underpaid, your employer may correct the mistake. Make a note of what is said when you discuss the issue of unpaid or underpaid overtime.
If you don’t get anywhere, you should file a complaint with the Department of Labor Wages and Hours Division nearest you.
They should investigate your complaint and if they find that a violation of the FLSA or a state overtime law has been made, they may be able to get your employer to pay any wages you are owed and the normal wage from then on.
There are fines for violating state or federal labor laws, so it is in the interests of your employer to pay the correct wage if they are investigated by the DOL.
If your employer has violated wage or overtime laws it may be asked to pay a penalty of $1,000 for each violation.
Get an Expert on Your Side
It can be intimidating challenging your employer. If the Department of Labor cannot help you or gets nowhere with your employer you are advised to talk to an employment lawyer about your case. The lawyer can help you file a lawsuit against your employer to recover unpaid wages you are owed.
