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IN-HOME CAREGIVERS: ARE YOU PAID OVERTIME? IF you are employed as a 24hour caregiver, working aroundthe-clock to provide care and assistance to an individual inside their home, you are most likely entitled to overtime compensation. If you are paid a fixed daily rate, regardless of the actual hours you work or the quality and quantity of work you perform, you are not receiving overtime compensation and likely have a valuable claim for wage theft. This is true whether you are hired directly by the care recipient or paid through a home care agency. In 2014 the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights (“DWBR”) became law in California. The law was passed as part of a movement to enhance the rights of domestic workers, whom the California Legislature deemed to be some of the most invisible and vulnerable workers in the state. Now, under the DWBR, in-home caregivers are entitled to receive overtime wages for all hours worked in excess of 9 in a day or 45 in a week. In California, most 24-hour caregivers must be paid a minimum of $378.00 per day to comply with the requirements of the DWBR. The first 9-hours of work should be paid at the legal minimum wage rate of $12.00 per hour, which equals $108.00. Then, for the remaining 15 hours, the law requires overtime payments at a rate of $18.00 per hour, which amounts to an additional $270.00 per day. Unfortunately, in actual practice, most caregivers receive far less than the applicable minimum wage,
often earning as little as $180 to $240 per day. A 24hour caregiver who is earning less than $378.00 per day likely has a very valuable claim for wage theft. For example, if you are a caregiver working 24-hours per day, 5 days per week for a salary of $1,100 per week (or $220 per day), your weekly unpaid overtime claim is calculated as follows: Your weekly salary of $1,100 is divided by 45 hours to calculate a regular rate of pay, equal to $24.44 per hour. Your overtime rate is 1.5 times your regular rate of pay, which amounts to $36.66 per hour. Your pre-determined salary does not compensate you, at all, for the 15 daily overtime hours you work. So, each day, you accrue $550.00 of unpaid overtime wages. Employers, who willfully fail to pay an employee the requisite overtime compensation, are also subject to liquidated damages, which could add an additional $180.00 per day to the wage theft claim. Plus, the law provides for interest, attorneys fees, and penalties.
In t he above exa mple, t he hypothetical caregiver is owed $2,750 in unpaid overtime wages per week. On a yearly basis, the overtime claim alone exceeds $140,000. We have helped many caregivers whose claims exceed $500,000 in damages with the addition of penalties, liquidated damages and interest, after working for several years. Caregivers, who are victims of wage theft, may recover their u npa id w ages goi ng back 4 years from the date a lawsuit is filed in court. We have helped many caregivers file claims against their former employers. Even if you last worked several years ago, you still have time to pursue a claim. The one exception is if the care recipient patient has passed away. In that instance, a claim against the care recipient’s estate must be filed within 1 year of their passing, or sooner if an estate has been opened. If you are a caregiver and are hesitant to proceed with claims for wage theft against your current or former employer please visit our website at www. caregiverovertime.com/pa/concerns/ to review our article that addresses many of the common concerns we have heard from caregivers. If you are a caregiver working 24-hour shifts without overtime compensation, we want to talk with you about your legal rights. We provide compassionate and confidential consultations. Please contact us at (818) 807-4168, for a free case evaluation.
This article is an attorney advertisement written by Daniel Chaleff, employment law attorney at Chaleff Rehwald Peterson in Woodland Hills. Our examples are of a general nature and are not a guarantee regarding the outcome of your individual matter. The law firm focuses on caregiver rights. Please call us at (818) 807-4168 for a free case evaluation. Or visit us at www.caregiverovertime.com/ to learn more about caregiver overtime law. We offer a 24-hour chat line on our website.
20 million Filipinos to get free COVID-19 vaccine — Finance chief Dominguez Death penalty? Let’s focus instead on life amid COVID-19 -- Binay MANILA (Mabuhay) — Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday questioned the push to bring back the death penalty at a time when so many Filipinos are already dying. “Every day, there are reports na 20 yung namatay today. The next day 30, 40. We need to talk about paano tayo mabubuhay and by discussing death penalty... kamatayan pa rin ba yung kailangan pag-uusapan?” Binay said. “The conversation will shift towards death again when there's so much death already happening around us. Para sa akin, at the moment, mag-focus muna tayo kung paano tayo mabubuhay, at kung paano natin bubuhayin ang ating mga kababayan,” Binay added. Binay made the comments in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's call to reimpose capital punishment for drug-related crimes during the Chief Executive’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), delivered amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Philippines has at least 85,486 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon. Of this number, 26,996 have recovered while 1,962 have died. This leaves the number of active COVID-19 cases at 56,528. “If I were to grade the SONA of the President, I would say it's incomplete. I expected more pagdating doon sa kung papaano natin bibigyang solusyon pagdating dito sa problema natin sa COVID-19,” Binay said. “Medyo kulang pagdating doon sa detalye, doon sa roadmap, more or less, sana doon nag-focus ang ating Presidente,” she added. Binay then argued that given the country’s ill justice system, reimposing death penalty is only a death sentence for the poor. “I am against the death penalty. Unless maayos natin yung justice system natin, kawawa ‘yung mga mahihirap. They can't afford the best lawyers,” Binay said. “Hindi magiging patas ang hustisya hangga't hindi naaayos ito,” she added. (MNS)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — At least 20 million Filipinos will be provided with COVID-19 vaccine for free, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said. At a briefing in Malacañang Thursday night and aired Friday morning, Dominguez said the government is capable of financing P20 billion worth of COVID-19 vaccines which are expected to be ready by December this year. “May three pharmaceutical companies na po sa China, one from Great Britain, one from the US na nasa advanced stage na. By around October, matatapos ang trials, so before December, most likely ma-aapprove ito ng Food and Drug Administration nila,” Dominguez said. “When that happens, DOH ang mamimili ng tamang bakunang bibilhin. May financing na po kami. The vaccine will be free for 20 million people, $10 per dose, mga P20 bill i o n p o ,” Dom i ng uez added. Dom i ng uez sa id t he vacc i ne s w i l l be purchased t hr u Philippine International Trading Corporation under the Department of Trade and Industry which will turnover the vaccine to DOH. “Once this [purchase] is made,
i-tuturnover sa DOH para magamit nila sa poorest of the poor, iyong lowest 20 million [income earners] in the country,” Dominguez said. “DOH will put this in their budget, they will pay this P20 billion in two to three years, babayaran nila thru financing ng Landbank at DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines),” Dominguez said. (MNS)
FINANCE SECRETARY CARLOS DOMINGUEZ
Gasoline is alternative to alcohol as disinfectant, Duterte insists MANILA (Mabuhay) — President Rodrigo Duterte said he was not joking when he advised people last week that gasoline can be used as disinfectant. At a briefing with Cabinet officials in Malacañang on Thursday, Duterte said gas can be an alternative to alcohol. “Sabi nila itong si Duterte loko-loko, gago. Kung loko-loko ako, ikaw na sana ang na-presidente, hindi ako,” he said in his address aired on state-run PTV on Friday. “Totoo’ yang sinabi ko, alcohol. ‘Pag walang alcohol available hindi ka naman puwede lalo mahirap pupunta ka lang diyan sa gasoline station pagkatapos magpatulo. That’s disinfectant.”
Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque and the Department of Health earlier dismissed as a joke the President’s suggestion that face masks can be disinfected through gasoline. “Akala ninyo nagbibiro lang ako pero sa totoo hindi rin ako nagbibiro. You try to go inside my brain,” the President said. Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said last week that surgical and N95 masks are for single use only, but the public can wash their cloth mask for disinfection and use them again. The government mandates the wearing of face masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (MNS)
