Governor Brown: Do the Right Thing for Home Care Workers

Overtime pay is a right that all American workers should enjoy. But now that right is at risk for home care workers in California.

California’s senior citizens and people with disabilities rely on the quality care they receive through the state's In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS) and the dedicated home care workers who serve them. Home care workers earn very low wages for the important work they do keeping their clients healthy, safe, and out of the state’s hospitals and high-cost care facilities.

Last year, Governor Jerry Brown followed President Obama's example by signing a bill into law allowing home care workers to earn overtime pay for the first time in history, starting January 1, 2015.

But an out-of-state lawsuit by the for-profit home care industry was successful in convincing a federal judge to delay the implementation of this law, taking away these protections just hours before they were supposed to go into effect.

Governor Brown can move forward with overtime pay for California home care workers anyway, and he's already set aside the money for it in the state budget. New we just need him to do the right thing and stand up for home care workers and the people they care for by confirming overtime pay for home care workers.