Governor Brown signed a new law, AB 241, which requires anyone employing a home care aide to pay overtime for all hours worked in excess of 9 hours per day or 45 hours per week. Prior to the new law, home care aides who spent at least 80% of their time performing personal attendant duties were not entitled to overtime pay. The new law is considered as a legislative victory that will improve working conditions for these workers and will in turn improve the quality of care that Californians receive. California is the third state in the nation, after New York and Hawaii, to win new protections for domestic workers.
AB 241 went into effect January 1st this year and will expire in 3 years, at which time it can be renewed into law. Below is a comparison of the live-in compensation prior to and after AB 241:
16 hours: regular rate 9 hours: regular rate
8 hours: 0 7 hours: overtime pay
24 hours total 8 hours: 0 (uninterrupted sleep)
24 hours total
Under the new new law, live-in non-medical aides must be provided with 8 continuous, uninterrupted duty-free hours each day to rest/sleep. If the rest time is interrupted because the client needs the aide’s services, the aide’s work time is considered hours worked, and the regular rate applies. If the live-in aide is unable to take at least 5 continuous duty-free hours for rest/sleep each day, the client must pay for all hours the aide is on-site that day, even if some of the aide’s work hours were duty-free.
If a caregiver works a 12-hour shift, the regular rate will apply for the first 9 hours, and overtime rate (1.5 times the regular rate) for the remaining 3 hours. The higher rate does not apply if another aide provides the additional hours of service above the first 9 hours per day and/or 45 hours per week.
The overtime obligation applies regardless of whether the worker is employed by the family or a third-party employment agency. Here in California employers have to follow state law if it affords better compensation and working conditions, and more benefits to employees. Wage and hour laws in California can be tricky and difficult to follow. Mistakes can lead to huge problems (lawsuits, big money payouts to employees). By hiring a legitimate staffing agency, you can eliminate having to deal with that problem.
