Takeaways

• A proposed DOL rule would restore the FLSA’s companionship exemption from its minimum wage and overtime requirements for caregivers working in client homes. It also would eliminate a restriction on the amount of “care” that companionship workers can provide to elderly and “infirm” clients under the exemption.
• The proposal would restore the overtime exemption for live-in domestic workers employed by home care agencies.
• A 2013 rule that barred third-party home care agencies from using the companionship exemption remains in effect, but the DOL has instructed agency staff not to enforce the rule.

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Article

The “companionship services” exemption to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime requirements would again be available to third-party agencies that employ home caregivers and live-in domestic service employees under a proposed rule issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) on July 2, 2025.

The DOL is accepting comments on the proposed rule through Sept. 2, 2025.

Enacted by Congress in 1974, FLSA Sec. 213(a)(15) exempts workers employed in “domestic service” or individuals who “provide companionship services for individuals” from minimum wage and overtime requirements. Section 13(b)(21) exempts from overtime (but not the minimum wage requirement) “any employee who is employed in domestic service in a household and who resides in such household.” The regulations enforcing these exemptions define companionship services as “fellowship,...

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