While the main purpose of the amendment was to expand labor protections to domestic workers, two exceptions were included: one for those serving as “casual” babysitters and another for those providing “companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves.”[1] The United States Department of Labor (DOL) holds significant discretion over how the companionship exemption is interpreted and applied in the workplace.
In 2007, the case Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. v. Coke [3] brought the issue of the companionship exemption in front of the United States Supreme Court.
In this case, home care worker Evelyn Coke claimed she was unfairly denied minimum wage and overtime pay by her employer.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20130119005555/http://www.adapt.org/main.2012 On September 17, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule extending the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and overtime protections to most of the nation's workers who provide essential home care assistance to elderly people and people with illnesses, injuries or disabilities.
The final rule, released October 2013, is intended to provide additional protections under FLSA for homecare workers and has been accompanied by dedicated webpages on the DOL's Wage an Hour website at www.dol.gov/whd/homecare.