The federal government is proposing new regulations for home-care workers. The regulations will give around 2 million workers minimum wage and overtime protections protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Advocates for the change say that exempting the workers does not take into account the realities of their work. The home-care worker population, which is mainly made up of immigrant and minority women, is expected to continue growing as the population ages.
See "Wage Protection Planned for Home Care Workers", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, December 14, 2011