Most low-wage workers put in some unpaid overtime, but home health aides are particularly likely not to be paid, according to a new study. “Home health care workers are especially vulnerable to violations, both because of the nature of the job and because they’re not fully covered by the protections that most of us take for granted,” said Annette Bernhardt, the policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project and one of the co-authors of Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities.
The report is based on a survey of 4,387 workers in low-wage industries in the three largest U.S. cities—Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. It found that employment and labor laws are “regularly and systematically violated” in home health care and other low-wage work settings.
“More than two-thirds (68 percent) of our sample experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week,” says the report’s executive summary. “The average worker lost $51, out of average weekly earnings of $339. Assuming a full-time, full-year work schedule, we estimate that these workers lost an average of $2,634 annually due to workplace violations, out of total earnings of $17,616.”
While home health aides were less likely (12%) than the average low-wage worker (26%) to earn less than minimum wage, they were more likely not to be paid extra if they put in more than 40 hours a week. Of the home health aides who had worked overtime in the previous week, 83% were not paid extra for that time, compared to 76 percent of the workers overall who had put in overtime.
Home health aides were also more likely than most to put in unpaid work off the clock and to have meal breaks denied, shortened or interrupted.
The study also found that employers often pressure employees not to file for workers’ compensation for medical costs and missed wages due to job-related injuries.
“Everyone has a stake in addressing the problem of workplace violations,” the authors conclude. “When impacted workers and their families struggle in poverty and constant economic insecurity, the strength and resiliency of local communities suffer. When unscrupulous employers violate the law, responsible employers are forced into unfair competition, setting off a race to the bottom that threatens to bring down standards throughout the labor market. And when significant numbers of workers are underpaid, tax revenues are lost.”
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Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance
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