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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-8211
As part of its continuing emphasis on promoting greater minimum wage and
overtime compliance in low-wage industries, the Labor Department will carry out
an education and outreach initiative - including a compliance survey - aimed at
low-wage occupations in the nursing home industry. The Labor Department's
outreach effort, part of its overall compliance mission carried out by the Wage
and Hour Division, will help to promote greater knowledge of employers'
obligations in the rapidly growing health care industry. The Department has
been engaged in local activities throughout the country since late last year in
preparation of the initiative announced today.
"The predominance of low-wage workers and the aging of America' make
health care an industry of growing importance," said Bernard E. Anderson,
Assistant Secretary for Employment Standards.
"Today, we are engaged in a mutually beneficial education and outreach
effort," Anderson continued. "But the biggest beneficiaries of this initiative
are the thousands of low-wage employees and millions of patients within the
expanding nursing home industry."
The Labor Department will begin an investigation-based compliance
survey of a national sample of nursing care facilities to ascertain the current
level of minimum wage and overtime compliance under the Fair Labor Standards
Act. Collection and development of this data, the Department predicts, will
assist in determining the nature of future steps the Wage and Hour Division may
take to promote compliance throughout the industry.
The American nursing home industry now includes over 21,000
establishments and an estimated 1.7 million employees, many of whom are
low-wage workers.
The Department of Labor has been engaged since 1993 in an effort to
maximize its enforcement impact by focusing on traditionally low-wage
industries that employ the most vulnerable workers. Because a high percentage
of minimum wage and overtime violations occur in low-wage jobs, the Wage and
Hour Division has pursued other initiatives in the hotel/motel, janitorial,
security, garment and agricultural industries.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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