How will the new FLSA laws affect the cost of Assisted Living and Senior Care Homes? According to the official government website for the act, it will have an impact.

“Hospitals and other institutions “primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, or the mentally ill” are covered employers under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act).  Special rules (8 and 80 Overtime System) apply to the payment of overtime to employees of hospitals and residential care establishments, such as nursing facilities, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, residential care facilities, and intermediate care facilities for individuals with disabilities.” – United States Department of Labor, DOL website - italics ours

The overtime laws are sometimes referred to by employers and the DOL as - The “Eight and Eighty” (8 and 80) Overtime System. According to the government, many Assisted Living facilities will need to be certain to heed the updated law if they were not in the past, or face penalties.

The reality is many Assisted Living facilities will be paying more overtime to comply with the updated law. Others will try to increase staff working less than full time/overtime to try to keep costs down. Many times this can result in greater turn over of employees, thus another source of increased cost, as it can be expensive to train and integrate a new employee.

In the end, the monthly and yearly cost of Assisted Living and Senior Care Home living may very well go up. How much remains to be seen.

If you are concerned about this for existing seniors, or if you are starting to search for Senior Home living, the best thing you can do is use a source like Senior Home Search to find the homes and facilities operating in your area and to contact them directly to ask for information.

Senior Home Search is one of the leading Senior Home and Assisted Living websites that give you Direct Contact Information – not an “800” number to a sales person. Using our website you can get information such as:

• Direct contact Phone Numbers to the homes.
• Contact and Information forms that are delivered directly to the home owners.
• Email addresses of the homes you see
• Detailed information about the home including number of beds, services provided and amenities.
• Photos of the home and its rooms
• Maps and Directions directly to each home

These are just a few of the reasons why you should be using Senior Home Search to find how the new labor laws will affect the cost of Assisted Living near you.

For Assisted Living and Senior Care Home operators, a good source of information is at the U.S. Department of Labor website. One page provides an FLSA Overtime Calculator Advisor section.Thank you.