Pennsylvania home care agencies are facing increased wage-and-hour scrutiny.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) recently launched Standing Up for Home Care Workers, a new enforcement initiative focused specifically on home care agencies and other third-party employers.
What makes this different from a typical wage investigation?
Pennsylvania isn't waiting for an employee complaint.
L&I says it has begun proactively identifying home care agencies for investigation and sending notices to examine potential wage-related violations. The state says the investigations will look at whether covered home care workers are being paid properly for all hours worked, including overtime when required.
For Pennsylvania home care employers, now is a good time to take a closer look at overtime calculations, timekeeping practices, travel time and payroll records.
Yes. Pennsylvania has launched proactive wage-and-hour investigations of home care agencies as part of its new Standing Up for Home Care Workers initiative.
The initiative is being led by L&I's Bureau of Labor Law Compliance (BLLC). Unlike most labor law investigations, which begin after a worker files a complaint, Pennsylvania says it is proactively launching investigations into selected home care agencies to identify and address potential wage-related violations.
The state says the investigations will cover agencies that collectively employ nearly 100,000 Pennsylvania home care workers.
That's an important distinction for employers. A wage-and-hour review is no longer something a home care agency should think about only after receiving an employee complaint.
According to L&I, roughly 40% of Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act complaints come from home care workers.
The state says those complaints frequently involve:
Pennsylvania has also created new home-care-specific guidance for workers and employers explaining how the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act applies to home health aides, personal care aides, direct care workers and similar employees working for home care agencies, staffing agencies, registries and other third parties.
For employers, the message is fairly straightforward: accurate timekeeping and payroll records matter, especially in a workforce where hours can be spread across multiple clients, locations and shifts.
In most cases, home care workers employed by third-party agencies are covered by Pennsylvania's minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Pennsylvania says covered workers must receive at least the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek. Pennsylvania generally requires overtime at 1.5 times an employee's regular rate of pay for hours over 40, subject to applicable exemptions.
Federal law is important here, too.
The U.S. Department of Labor explains that third-party employers such as home care staffing agencies generally cannot claim the federal companionship-services exemption for their employees. That means third-party employers generally must pay covered direct-care workers federal minimum wage and overtime at time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
Pennsylvania Labor & Industry: Home Care Worker Guidance
This is one of the areas to particularly pay close attention.
For home care agencies, calculating hours worked may involve more than simply looking at the time an employee spends inside a client's home.
Depending on the circumstances, compensable time can include certain travel between clients, work performed before or after a scheduled shift, interrupted breaks and other time spent performing work for the employer.
Ordinary commuting from an employee's home to the first work location and from the final work location back home generally isn't compensable under federal law.
But travel between clients during the workday can be.
For example, if an agency assigns an employee to one client's home in the morning and another client's home in the afternoon, the U.S. Department of Labor says the travel between those clients is generally compensable work time. Travel performed while taking a client to an appointment or running errands for the client may also count as work time.
That makes accurate time tracking especially important for home care agencies with employees serving multiple clients in a day.
Not every break automatically counts as unpaid time.
The DOL explains that certain meal periods, sleep periods and other personal time may be excluded when an employee is completely relieved from duty and the applicable requirements are met.
If an employee's supposedly unpaid time is interrupted by work responsibilities, however, some or all of that time may need to be counted as hours worked.
Agencies using automatic meal deductions or other automatic timekeeping rules should make sure those systems reflect what employees are actually working.
This is another area where home care payroll can get complicated.
An employee's overtime obligation doesn't necessarily reset simply because the employee moves from one client to another.
If the same agency employs a home care worker who works for multiple clients, the agency generally needs to consider the employee's total compensable hours for the workweek when determining overtime.
The federal DOL specifically gives the example of a worker providing 30 hours of services to one individual and 20 hours to another. When the same entity is the employer for both assignments, those hours may need to be combined when calculating overtime.
This is why looking only at hours per client can create payroll problems. Employers need visibility into the employee's total hours worked.
Accurate records are central to both Pennsylvania and federal wage-and-hour requirements.
Pennsylvania's Minimum Wage Act includes employer recordkeeping obligations, and the state's new enforcement initiative specifically identifies inaccurate records as one of the recurring issues found in home care wage complaints.
Federal rules similarly require covered employers to maintain records of employees' hours worked and wages earned.
For home care agencies, that makes it worth reviewing whether your records accurately capture:
The goal isn't simply to have a timekeeping system. The records need to reflect the time employees actually worked.
Pennsylvania's enforcement announcement and federal enforcement history point to several areas home care employers should pay close attention to.
One Pennsylvania case illustrates how quickly these issues can add up. In a federal case involving a Philadelphia home healthcare agency, the U.S. Department of Labor found that the employer failed to pay required overtime, failed to combine hours worked for multiple clients, didn't pay employees for travel between clients and maintained inaccurate time records. A federal consent judgment ultimately required approximately $1.6 million in back wages and liquidated damages for 288 workers, plus a civil penalty.
That case predates Pennsylvania's new initiative, but the underlying issues closely mirror the areas state officials say they're now examining.
If you operate a home care agency in Pennsylvania, consider reviewing these areas now:
Overtime calculations
Confirm that covered employees receive overtime when required and that overtime is calculated using the correct regular rate.
Total weekly hours
Make sure hours aren't being evaluated separately by client, department or location when they should be combined.
Travel time
Review how travel between clients and work-related transportation during the day is recorded and paid.
Off-the-clock work
Look for work employees may perform before clocking in, after clocking out or outside scheduled shifts.
Meal and break deductions
Make sure unpaid time reflects periods when employees are actually relieved of their duties.
Timekeeping records
Verify that records reflect actual hours worked rather than only scheduled or authorized hours.
Multiple pay rates
Review employees who work different assignments or receive different rates to ensure overtime is calculated correctly.
Payroll records
Make sure payroll and timekeeping records align and that adjustments are documented.
Policies and manager practices
A written policy isn't enough if supervisors are handling time, travel or overtime differently in practice.
Don't ignore it, and don't start changing historical records.
An investigation notice should be reviewed carefully so the agency understands what records and time periods are being requested. Employers may need to gather payroll records, timekeeping data, employee information and other documentation relevant to the investigation.
Because the facts and potential legal issues can vary significantly by employer, agencies receiving an investigation notice should consider involving appropriate legal counsel or another qualified adviser.
Even agencies that haven't received a notice can use Pennsylvania's announcement as an opportunity to review their current processes before a problem surfaces.
You don't need to wait for an investigation notice to review your wage-and-hour practices.
Start with the areas where home care payroll tends to become complicated: employees working across multiple clients, travel during the workday, overtime, breaks and accurate recording of all hours worked.
Then make sure your systems support those practices.
Timekeeping, scheduling and payroll should work together so employers can see an employee's actual hours, identify overtime and maintain reliable records. For organizations managing a complex, shift-based workforce, integrated systems can also make it easier to identify issues before payroll is processed.
CTR supports healthcare organizations with payroll, HR, timekeeping and workforce management technology designed to provide better visibility into hours, overtime and labor costs, backed by a dedicated support team that understands complex payroll environments.
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Pennsylvania's new initiative changes the enforcement landscape for home care agencies.
Instead of relying only on employee complaints, the state is proactively identifying agencies for wage-and-hour investigations. With Pennsylvania reporting that roughly 40% of Minimum Wage Act complaints come from home care workers, employers should expect timekeeping, overtime calculations and payroll records to receive increased attention.
For home care employers, the takeaway isn't to panic. It's to make sure the way employees actually work matches the way their time and pay are being recorded.
Review your processes. Make sure travel and overtime are being handled correctly. Confirm that timekeeping records reflect actual hours worked. And if something doesn't look right, address it before it becomes a bigger payroll problem.
Disclaimer: This blog is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice.
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This information is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Employers should consult qualified legal counsel regarding their specific compliance obligations.
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