Compliance
Home Care Overtime Rules: What Agencies Owe Caregivers
Since 2015, home care agencies must pay caregivers overtime after 40 hours in a workweek. How the rule works, what counts as hours worked, and which states add daily overtime.
Pennsylvania overtime rules for home care workers
Last verified October 28, 2026 · All Pennsylvania resources
In Pennsylvania, overtime is time-and-a-half after 40 hours in a workweek. The state minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The federal Home Care Rule bars agencies from the companionship and live-in exemptions, though the Department of Labor stopped enforcing it against agencies in July 2025 while it considers undoing it. Pennsylvania's own law also requires overtime for agency caregivers, so they would still be owed it if the federal rule is undone.
What are Pennsylvania's overtime and minimum wage rules?
| Minimum wage | $7.25 an hour |
|---|---|
| Weekly overtime | After 40 hours |
| Daily overtime | None |
Does Pennsylvania law require overtime for agency caregivers?
Yes. Pennsylvania's domestic services exemption applies only to work for a householder (34 Pa. Code 231.1), and the state Supreme Court held in Bayada Nurses v. Commonwealth (2010) that a home care agency cannot use it and must pay overtime after 40 hours.
Does Pennsylvania have special rules for home care workers?
Pennsylvania's Minimum Wage Act exempts domestic services, but regulations define domestic services as work in a private dwelling for an employer acting as a householder (34 Pa. Code 231.1). Under Bayada Nurses v. Commonwealth, the exemption applies only to workers employed by the householder, so home care agency caregivers are covered by state minimum wage and 1.5x overtime after 40 hours.
Calculate a week of overtime in Pennsylvania
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Sources
More for Pennsylvania
Overtime rules by state: other states
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