Home health industry fights proposal to require minimum wage

Home health care companies are leading the fight against an Obama administration proposal to require them to pay their workers the minimum wage, despite data showing that the industry was one of the few nationally to maintain profits during the worst of the recession.
One of the industry's leading companies, Home Instead Senior Care, spent at least $362,000 in 2011 fighting the proposal while it also touts an 18.8 yield ratio of investment to revenue, which was the highest in the group reviewed by the magazine Franchise Business Review.
A spokesman for Home Instead sent a news release from the Private Duty Homecare Association stating that the proposed rules would cut employees' hours and, ultimately, hurt caregivers.
Home health companies have been more profitable in the past two years, even as other businesses have been hit hard by the economy,
"In home health care, you can't even tell you had a recession," Lubansky said.
The minimum wage is now $7.25 an hour.
A Labor Department proposal issued in December would require home health care companies to follow federal wage and hour laws regarding their workers.
Changing the rules, industry officials say, would damage the quality of care.
Most home health care payments come from private insurance or the family of the person needing care, said Gale Bohling, director of government relations for the National Private Duty Association. Requiring them to pay minimum wage and overtime could hurt a population that would rather stay home than go to nursing home care, he said.
Many workers also have advanced training, such as certified nursing assistants."It does differ from a kid working at McDonald's for minimum wage," Smith said.
Home health industry fights proposal to require minimum wage – USATODAY.com