Your time matters. Travel between patients, mandatory meetings, training, and time spent on paperwork or filling out care plans are all hours worked. And if you're misclassified as a contractor or not paid for the time you actually work, that's a federal violation.
Who do I represent?
- Home health aides (HHAs)
- Certified nursing assistants (CNAs)
- Registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in home care settings
- Group home and residential facility workers
- Disability support providers (DSPs) and day program staff
- Personal care attendants and companion caregivers
- Any healthcare worker paid flat rates or as a 1099 contractor
What are the most common healthcare overtime violations?
Travel time not paid. You drive 45 minutes to your first patient's home, work 8 hours, then drive 30 minutes to a second location. Your employer only pays you for the hours spent at the patient bedside. The travel time is work, and you're owed for it. This adds up fast, especially if you're bouncing between multiple patient homes daily.
Lunch breaks deducted but not taken. You work through lunch because a patient needs care. Your employer deducts a 30-minute or hour-long lunch break anyway. That's a violation. If you work through it, you get paid for it. If you get a genuine meal break away from work duties, then the deduction is legal.
Misclassification as independent contractors. You're on a 1099, but the agency decides your schedule, the patient you serve, how you do the job, what supplies you use, and what you wear. You're not in business for yourself. You're not free to take other clients. You depend entirely on this one company for work. That's an employee, not a contractor.
Group home workers and the 500K exemption myth. Some employers tell residential care facility workers that they don't have to pay overtime because the facility operates on a small budget or serves fewer than a certain number of people. That's false. The revenue threshold that exempts some employers doesn't apply to residential care facilities. Group home workers get overtime protection.
Automatic lunch deductions. Many home care agencies automatically deduct a meal period whether you actually took it or not. If you can't take a break because you're caring for a patient, that time is compensable.
How does the law protect you?
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires all compensable work time to be paid. That includes travel to and between patient locations, waiting time if you're required to be ready to work, mandatory training, and paperwork.
The economic reality test determines whether you're an employee or contractor. Six factors matter: (1) control over the work, (2) whether you're in business for yourself, (3) permanence of the relationship, (4) whether your work is integral to the employer's business, (5) who supplies equipment and materials, and (6) opportunity for profit or loss.
Home care workers almost always qualify as employees under this test. You don't control when, where, or how you work. You're not independently serving multiple companies. The employer controls everything. That's employment, not contracting.
There is no overtime exemption for healthcare workers in home care settings. Even if you're salaried, you must be paid time and a half for hours over 40 per week.
What could your case be worth?
Home care cases can involve significant damages because the violations typically run across years of employment, and the unpaid time adds up.
Consider a home health aide working 45 hours a week with 90 minutes of unpaid travel time each week, earning $15 per hour. Over two years without overtime pay, back wages alone could exceed $10,000. Add liquidated damages (another 100 percent) and attorney's fees, and the case value climbs to $25,000 or more. If multiple workers are involved or the pay is higher, cases routinely exceed $50,000.
What does it cost to bring a case?
I work on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront. If there is no recovery, you pay nothing at all, not even the costs.
Contact Me
If you've been misclassified as a contractor, had lunch breaks deducted when you worked, or weren't paid for travel time between patients, call me. I'll walk through what you were paid, how your time was tracked, and whether you have a case.
Call me at (512) 799-2048.