Editorial: Fed decision needs healing

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | 7 a.m.

A Q ueens, N.Y., woman almost ended an injustice that has been going on for 32 years in the home health care industry. But the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put an end to her hopes of reversing a decision by the Labor Department.

After working for an agency as a home health aide for 20 years, Evelyn Coke retired after being hit by a car. Her personal-injury attorney learned that she had never received overtime pay, despite having worked well in excess of 40 hours a week.

Coke's lawyer won a unanimous decision in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 upholding her right to overtime pay. The administrations of President Bush and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The case traces to 1974, when Congress acted to ensure that minimum-wage and overtime benefits extended to cooks, maids and other household workers.

But, as The New York Times reported earlier this year in writing about Coke's case, Congress allowed exemptions for babysitters and "companions" for the elderly and infirm. In 1975 the Labor Department decided that those exemptions applied to home health care workers.

Today, with the elderly population rising, there are 1.4 million home health workers, the Times reported, and none of them is covered by overtime or minimum wage laws.

Home health aides are paid for under Medicaid and Medicare, programs funded by federal, state, county and large-city governments. This is why the Bush and Bloomberg administrations opposed the appeals court ruling. In its decision Monday, the Supreme Court said "courts should defer" to the Labor Department rule.

Home health aides should not bear the social costs involved in caring for elderly and infirm people. They should receive all the federal labor protections as other classes of workers.

Reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare should be increased to cover the workers' overtime and minimum-wage compensation. Congress should revisit its 1974 amendments, and clarify that agency-employed home health workers are distinct from those who act as baby sitters and companions.