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Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to ensure that certain caregiving employees are no longer exempted from overtime and minimum wage protections.
Summary
This bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to remove the exemption from minimum wage and overtime protections for certain home care workers. The bill narrows the exemption to apply only to casual babysitting services, excluding home health aides, personal care aides, and other trained caregiving personnel. Home care workers will now be entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay for their work. The bill defines "casual basis" as irregular or intermittent employment and not the primary vocation of the worker.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Murray, Patty [D-WA] (D-WA)
21 cosponsors
- Sen. Alsobrooks, Angela D. [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (D-WI)
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Gallego, Ruben [D-AZ] (D-AZ)
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO)
- Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] (D-VA)
- Sen. Kim, Andy [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] (I-VT)
- Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
- Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] (D-OR)
Actions (2)
- Mar 12, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Mar 12, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 12, 2026
Mrs. Murray (for herself, Mr. Kim, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Gallego, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Markey, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Warren, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Schumer) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to ensure that certain caregiving employees are no longer exempted from overtime and minimum wage protections.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act”.
SEC. 2. MINIMUM WAGE AND OVERTIME FOR CERTAIN CAREGIVERS.
(a) Exemption Amendments.—Section 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(15), by striking “casual basis in domestic service employment” and all that follows through “of the Secretary)” and inserting the following: “casual basis to provide babysitting services”; and
(2) by repealing subsection (b)(21).
(b) Definitions.—Section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(z) ‘Babysitting services’—
“(1) means the custodial care and protection of infants or children in or about a private home in which the infants or children reside; and
“(2) does not include services relating to the care and protection of infants or children which are performed by trained personnel, such as registered, vocational, or practical nurses, and home care workers, including home health aides and personal care aides. “(aa) ‘Casual basis’, with respect to the provision of babysitting services—
“(1) means employment which is irregular or intermittent (as defined and delimited by the Secretary), and which is not performed by an individual whose vocation is babysitting; and
“(2) may include the performance of household work not related to the provision of babysitting services, so long as the time performing such work does not exceed 20 percent of the total hours worked while providing babysitting services.”. <all>
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