
On January 21, 2025, NWLC joined an amicus brief led by the National Employment Law Project to the Third Circuit of Appeals in Walsh v. WiCare Home Agency, LLC, defending home care workers’ rights to receive the minimum wage and overtime protections established in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
WiCare, a Pennsylvania home care agency, was prosecuted by the Department of Labor (DOL) for failing to pay 88 of its employees the $7.25 minimum wage and 181 of its employees overtime in violation of DOL’s 2015 rule interpreting the FLSA to include home care workers. Before 2015, home care workers were excluded from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime pay protections under an outdated, overbroad reading of the “companionship exemption.” WiCare subsequently challenged the 2015 rule in federal court. In the amicus brief, we ask the Third Circuit to uphold the 2015 rule. We explain that the 2015 rule rightly recognized that home care workers are professionals providing essential care for disabled people and older adults, and that enabling a decrease in already-low wages will harm the women of color who make up the majority of the home care workforce. We also argue that low wages have driven many people out of the home care industry, causing a workforce shortage that prevents disabled people and older adults from accessing the quality care they critically need. We urge the Third Circuit to uphold the rule and continue to recognize that home care workers are protected under the FLSA, as they have been for the last 10 years.