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On September 2, 2025, NWLC submitted comments strongly opposing the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule to strip home care workers of their basic labor protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), rescinding a previous rule in 2013 that recognized the rights home care workers have to minimum wage and overtime pay.
Our comment points out that the services home care workers provide to older adults and disabled people—supporting their health needs within their homes and communities—is real and essential work and relied on by millions of people. Excluding home care workers from the FLSA’s protection perpetuates a discriminatory history that claimed that domestic work done by women and women of color did not deserve recognition.
In 2013, NWLC supported the DOL’s previous 2013 rule that brought home care workers under FLSA protection because it was a crucial step to remedying the racist and sexist history that originally excluded Black, brown, and immigrant women workers.
Now, after more than ten years, the DOL’s proposed rule seeks to roll back these basic protections. This would make it harder for home care workers to survive in their already-underpaid jobs and push them out of the profession, exacerbating a shortage of available home care workers to the older adults and disabled people who critically rely on their support.