It is already a norm in the United States that once a family member gets old and/or disabled and could no longer attend the activities of daily living; he or she will be sent to home care. In this facility, there are trained people usually called as home care aides who are ready to provide non-custodial care to aging and/or disabled clients. This non-custodial care typically includes helping with dressing, bathing, feeding, getting in and out of the bed, and using the toilet. Apart from home care aides, there are also health professionals who are in-charge for monitoring the vital signs of frail elders and disabled individuals using specific home medical equipment like thermometer, blood pressure device, etc.

Working in home care, whether your job is to assist in the activities of daily living of clients or to check their health condition using today’s high-end home medical equipment, is not as easy as many would think. Aside from strenuous tasks, the job also requires lots of patience and understanding considering that most of the clients are starting to lose their self-esteem, not to mention those who are experiencing acute mental distress. And the saddest part of them all is even basic rights of these home care workers to get paid fairly for a service they have rendered is often neglected.

The wage of home care aides has become a controversy in the US today. According to industry experts, this group of workers who are responsible for feeding their clients and helping with physical therapy should generally earn $8.50 to $12 an hour compared with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Aside from not receiving accurate basic wage; many of home care aides, who work along with professionals in uniform scrubs at the same time expert in using home medical equipment, are not entitled to get an overtime pay for any extended service rendered. As stated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of the US Labor Department, the overtime job that the worker has rendered should be paid 1.5 times of the regular rate.

Surveys also say that there are about 22 states in the United States that do exclude the home health care workers under their wage and hour laws. And this controversy in home health care industry is affecting approximately two million workers whose primary task is to care for many elderly and disabled Americans. So to have this issue resolve, the Obama administration recently proposed regulations to include home care aides under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the nation’s main wage and hour law. 

Wanda Smith knows how difficult to work in a home care setting because before she became a product consultant for an online store that provides high quality hospital and home medical equipment, she was once a home care worker.

About The Author

Related Pages

Connect With Ubscure