On Tuesday members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections heard competing testimony about the merits of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule that would extend minimum wage and overtime requirements to many home care workers. This proposal would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) companionship and live-in worker regulations to limit the types of duties that render a home caregiver exempt from FLSA requirements, clarify the type of activities and duties that may be considered “incidental” to the provision of companionship services, amend the recordkeeping requirements for live-in domestic workers, and specify that the exemption is limited to care givers employed by the individual, family or household using the services only. While proponents of the rule discussed the need to update the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) regulations to address the needs of this changing industry sector, others criticized the impact the rule would have on the quality and availability of elder home care, challenged the legality of changing the FLSA’s exemption, and questioned the thoroughness of the WHD’s economic analysis of the potential costs involved. The learn more about the proposal and its potential implications for employers, please continue reading at Littler's Washington, D.C. Employment Law Update.