The primary is over, and now it’s crunch time to come up with a state budget. A key fiscal battle is pitting legislative Democrats against the governor in overtime pay for in-home care workers.
Last fall, the federal government changed the overtime rules for caregivers who cook, bathe and provide other help for elderly or disabled people who live in their own homes. Starting next January, caregivers are entitled to overtime pay for any hours they work exceeding 40 in each week.
Gov. Jerry Brown says California can’t afford the overtime pay. He wants to cap workers’ hours to avoid triggering the overtime rules. The budget proposals he released in January and May reflect this cap, as well as rate cuts for in-home health care providers.
“Whether it’s the overtime or the provider rates or the courts or any of the other items, we have to squeeze it out of the current budget,” Brown said at a press conference about his latest budget proposal last month. “This is one cut on how to do it. Others will see differently, but at the end of the day we have to live within the revenue.”
Families and disability rights advocates are terrified of the consequences. They say a cap on hours will force people to hire strangers to perform intimate care duties they only trust their regular caregiver to do.