The state Department of Labor has issued an emergency update to its minimum-wage regulations that reinforces its longstanding guidance to home health care employers to pay workers for just 13 hours of a 24-hour shift.
The policy, known as the ’13-hour rule,’ helps control state spending on home care, which accounts for about 11% of the Medicaid budget. But it conflicts with three New York appellate court decisions issued in April and September that threw the home care industry into a panic.
The rulings said home health aides who don’t live full time with their elderly or disabled clients should be paid for every hour of a 24-hour shift. Although the Labor Department says workers don’t need to be paid for time spent sleeping and eating, the courts ruled they should be paid as long as they’re required to be at work.
