Hiring and Employing a Home Care Attendant

Home care workers support dignity, respect, self-determination, and independent living for people with disabilities, seniors, those with chronic illness, or those with temporary injuries. Most of us fit one of those descriptions at least at some point in our lives.  

Whether we are a person with a disability who needs assistance for daily tasks or we’re coordinating in-home support for an aging relative, we share the belief that this is valuable work, and that when a worker is treated well, it increases the quality of care and support that we and our families receive.

We must also change public policy to support us all to live and age with dignity, accessing the in-home support that we need.

Many ways to do right

Attendant support is expensive, but there are also many ways to improve your employment practices that don’t cost any money but are also important, like creating a clear written work agreement and having annual evaluations.

You can also augment a wage, too, by giving an end-of-year bonus. We encourage employers of attendants to review our Checklist and consider what you can do.

Overtime for attendants

If you employ a home attendant for a high number of hours and cannot afford overtime pay (time and half the regular hourly wage), we encourage you to hire multiple workers and track their hours, so that no one worker works more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.

Even if that requires making some big shifts, we believe that in the long run these changes will benefit everyone. Meanwhile, we will keep working for policies that make home care affordable and accessible to those of us who need long-term supports and services.

Check out our overall information about overtime, see state-by-state information here, and learn more about Federal Department of Labor rules about overtime here.