The federal laws that cover domestic live-in workers are found in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This law from 1938, has had major revisions in 1974 and 2013. The 2013 changes (which didn’t take effect to 2015) took away the over-time exemption for "third party employers" of live-ins. That meant that home care agencies had to start paying their live-in workers OT after 40 hours.
Another major change that affected agencies is that they had to start paying live-ins overtime for their entire 8 hour sleep shift IF the live-in was not permitted to average 5 consecutive hours of sleep each night. These two changes to the FLSA ONLY EFFECTED home care agencies, and did not affect families that choose to hire a live-in directly, without an agency This is what Grandma Joan helps families do, legally and within the doctrine of the FLSA. Most agencies stopped offering live-in care as a service in 2015, and switched to only offering the much more expensive 24 hour care as an alternative.
If you would like to read up on the law,
click here.
Home Owners Insurance / Umbrella Policy Add-on
Some clients tell us that their insurance agents recommend purchasing an add-on to their home owners insurance called an “Umbrella Policy” to help protect them against liabilities that occur in or on the property. Policies of $1,000,000 extra coverage can be had for as little as $300 per year, and we are told bring great peace of mind. Check with your insurance agent.
Workman’s Compensation Insurance
In 23 states workers comp insurance is required for W2 domestic employees. Those states are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota. Utah, and Washington.
You can obtain workers comp in most states through a
HomePay partner, your homeonwers insurance, or your insurance agent.
The cost varies widely from state to state from as little as $250 to as much as $1800 per year.. Click on the below link to visit your states website that addresses workmans comp.
http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dfec/regs/compliance/wc.htm