Are Home-Care Aides Exempt from the Minimum Wage and Overtime Laws?
(8/19/09)- Evelyn Coke, the home-health care worker, who instituted the lawsuit claiming that home-care workers were not exempted and should be covered under the federal labor regulations, died at the age of 74, on July 9 in Manhasset, N.Y. of heart failure. To see more on that case, please see our item dated 6/23/07 below. Ms. Coke a single mother of five earned about $7 an hour, and got no overtime pay. She typified the magnificent work being done by these workers at an exceeding low wage scale. Evelyn Coke will remain a symbol for those trying to correct this injustice. In June 15 Senators and 37 House members wrote to Hilda L. Solis, secretary of labor, urging her to eliminate the exemption for home-care aides. Ms. Solis stated that she intends to “fulfill the department’s mandate to protect America’s workers, including home health care aides, who work demanding schedules and receive low wages.” Ms Coke was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica on December 25, 1934. She worked in that coun
