President Obama: Extend Labor Protections to Homecare Workers

President Obama: Extend Labor Protections to Homecare Workers

President Obama: Extend Labor Protections to Homecare Workers

The "companionship exemption" is both deeply archaic and patently unfair. 

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

In December of 2011, President Obama announced that his administration would extend federal minimum wage and overtime protections to an estimated 2.5 million homecare workers. More than one year later, the rule changes to the “companionship exemption” of the Fair Labor Standards Act are under final review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Meanwhile, members of the profitable home healthcare industry are lobbying to keep the status quo.

 TO DO

Sign The Nation's open letter to President Obama imploring him to fulfill his promise and extend minimum wage and overtime protections to homecare workers

 TO READ

This recent editorial in The Hill makes clear how the "companionship exemption" is both deeply archaic and patently unfair. 

 TO WATCH

In this video, Caring Across Generations Co-Director Ai-jen Poo explains how and why her organization is trying to transform long-term care in a way that recognizes everyone's dignity.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x