Home Health Owner to Pay $1.6M in OT Back Wages & Damages

PHILADELPHIA —The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court that requires a Philadelphia home health care agency and its owner to pay approximately $1.6 million in back wages and liquidated damages to 288 workers deliberately denied overtime pay.

The consent judgment follows a complaint filed by the department’s Office of the Solicitor on Feb. 21, 2023, against Aging with Care Inc. and owner Amber Haq. An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employers did the following: 

• Paid home health aides their regular rates of pay for all hours worked, failing to pay overtime when required. 
• Failed to combine hours between multiple clients for overtime calculation purposes.
• Did not pay home health aides for time spent traveling between clients’ homes in the same workday.
• Maintained inaccurate records of hours worked due to not tracking hours for travel time.
• Failed to keep payroll records for part of the period of investigation.

“Home health care aides provide vital services to the most vulnerable people in our communities and have the right to receive all of their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Mark Watson in Philadelphia. “This case highlights the impact of the work we are doing in the homecare industry to make sure workers are compensated fairly and employers comply with the law.” 

In addition to recovering $823,265 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, the judgment—entered in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia—requires Aging with Care Inc. and Haq to pay a $56,218 civil money penalty assessed by the division for the willful nature of the employer’s violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court also enjoined the employers from violating the FLSA in the future.

“Homecare professionals who work for third-party agencies are entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This litigation and its outcome reflect our continued commitment to bringing this industry into compliance,” said Acting Regional Solicitor of Labor Samantha Thomas in Philadelphia. 

With two locations in the Philadelphia area, Aging with Care Inc. provides home health care services, including respite care, private duty nursing and support for people with disabilities.

Learn more about direct care workers and the responsibility of their employers to comply with federal minimum wage and overtime law.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws the division enforces, contact its toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns—regardless of where they are from—and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish