Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) introduced the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act last week. According to the National Private Duty Association’s (NPDA) blog, the association’s executive director, Kim Stoneking, issued a statement sharing the Act’s pros and cons with its member-base:

“NPDA supports some of the goals of the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act…NPDA member companies are committed to hiring and fielding a trained professional workforce of in-home companion care workers. NPDA also supports payment of at least minimum wage to in-home companion caregivers.”

However, “NPDA opposes mandating overtime for in-home companion caregivers” for the following reasons:

In some cases, caregivers spend the night in the homes of their clients. Making those overnight hours subject to overtime pay, many clients would not be able to pay for such a service. In addition, many seniors/people with disabilities usually prefer to have the same caregiver attend to their needs. “Restricting a caregiver’s work hours to no more than 8 hours/day or 40 hours/week could upset these essentially personal relationships, causing the senior/person with disability to have to settle for less care than they need, or to deal with more caregivers than they prefer.”

Click here to read more of NPDA’s thoughts on working with Rep. Sanchez and the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act.