Sometimes I believe it is helpful to look at caregiving from different perspectives.
Justices to Hear Case on Wages of Home Aides
“For 20 years, she had cared for clients in their homes, bathing them, cooking for them, helping them dress and take their medications. But now, suffering from kidney failure, she is too ill to work."
Evelyn Coke's day in Court, Supreme that is.
“Frail and sitting in a wheelchair the 73-year-old former home-care aide who regularly worked twenty-four hour days three or four times a week watched as her case, Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. v. Evelyn Coke, seeking overtime pay for in-home caretakers hired by third party companies”
Later, in a unanimous decision …
Home care workers not entitled to overtime
“The Supreme Court ruled that home care workers are not entitled to overtime pay under federal law.
...If Congress had wanted to apply the law’s wage and overtime provisions to such workers, “it easily could have done so,” the Bush administration said in papers filed in the case. “
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“Everyone has a stake in this issue. When workers earn less than the minimum wage, their families struggle from one crisis to the next and the resiliency of local communities suffers. When unscrupulous employers evade or violate laws, responsible employers are forced into a race to the bottom that threatens to bring down standards throughout the labor market. And when significant numbers of workers are underpaid, vital tax revenues are lost.” Annette Bernhardt, Economic Justice Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
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Evelyn Coke is a name and a face representing the support and respite that every home caregiver and person needing care understands.
Such problems may be beyond the frame of reference or even imagination of most Americans.
What is maddening to me is that the three branches of our government play hot potato with the “equal rights” of those who “care” for a living.
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
National Family Caregivers Month
(((((((((((HUGSTOYOU)))))))))))))Very intresting to know.Have a nice weekend.
ReplyDeleteGGGGGgggggrrrrrrr..... it is very maddening! Anyone who has ever dealt with both caregiving AND the government about the person that requires the caregiving knows it always is an uphill battle.... Don't even get me started about insurance companies!!!!
ReplyDeleteJackie