Working day and night and paid a pittance: Caregivers in the U.S.

Julie renewed a knows firsthand the true costs of the long hours required for elder care we get up like Bible up to prepare breakfast 7 o clock we start helping them bathing and hygiene she was a live-in caregiver who expected to work around 12 hours a day but says in reality the hours were much longer my experience is like 24 hours 7 days a week $800 a month that comes out to about two dollars an hour radoo de who now has a job with a different employer says her former boss refused to pay her more than that monthly sum even when she worked extra hours she explained that we have to be grateful of that 800 because she's giving free food and free accommodation but we're sleeping in the living room with no blanket nothing nationwide there are about 29,000 residential care communities not including nursing homes many of these facilities are run by small-time entrepreneurs who have converted single-family homes into assisted living facilities for seniors they're touted as a lucrative business opportunity I'm gonna share with you how to turn a single-family home into a cash flow machine I found there was such demand for this business that I filled the facility in 30 days we called it America's untapped business opportunity these boarding care homes vary in size but in California most are small with six beds or less they're often cheaper than nursing homes but can be quite profitable for operators but in some cases it's at the expense of caregivers who have little leverage when they complain about being underpaid asking like we heard that there's meaning mum wage something like that then she get mad if you guys are not happy here you're welcome to get out of my house some of our immigrant clients are on with what the law requires and even if they know what their rights are scared to come forward Winifred cow is a civil rights lawyer who's combating what some legal scholars are calling indentured servitude a lot of what we see in this industry is workers being paid a flat monthly salary for all the work some who worked for the owner of these care homes in California were paid as little as 350 an hour while amassing a fortune for the young owner Stephanie Costa I've always had this thing of taking care of older people like sick people that are dying I've always really felt for them in 2013 Kosta described her success on the reality TV show The Millionaire Matchmaker my name is Stephanie and I'm 30 years old and I own a chain of elderly care facility layna worth is three to four million probably I think it was frustrating and startling for us to see that on the one hand she wasn't even paying her workers the minimum wage and yet to find out she's on a TV show bragging about being a millionaire soon after appearing on TV California's labor regulator ordered Stephanie Costa and her company to pay about 1.6 million dollars for unpaid wages and penalties but that didn't disrupt Costas lifestyle in Beverly Hills she kept this home after filing for bankruptcy and settled with workers for a fraction of what she owed her six care homes are now owned by a property investment company registered by her father Stephanie Costa is the company's CEO when I paid a visit to her she stonewalled Stephanie we've tried to reach you about the exploitation of your caregivers but you've refused to answer our questions and I'd like to offer you the opportunity to comment reveal found 1,400 cases nationwide where care home operators broke minimum wage or other labor laws and in many cases the federal Department of Labor ordered that workers be compensated for stolen wages I did you know was among those cases her boss toll from her twice she took us to the Bank of America where her employer forced her to cash checks worth fifty six hundred dollars for back wages and then give it all right back to him that's my check that's my money so it should be mine her employers rimmel and Glenda público pleaded not guilty to multiple felonies including grand theft and tax fraud Ramel público defended the treatment of his caregivers telling us they were like a family but he refused to go on camera the Department of Labor also declined an interview but in a written statement a spokesperson said the agency has conducted extensive outreach to ensure operators pay their workers the wages they have legally earned were you aware that over the last decade there have been fourteen hundred cases of wage theft across the US I certainly wouldn't doubt that there may be that situate situation but I think it's pretty isolated Ron Simpson a founding director of six beds a group representing small care facilities in California thinks most do a good job the caregivers were really happy with their situation in most cases were they happy because they had a place where they could live they in they loved what they were doing they were fulfilled by enriching somebody else's life but that is not what I found in dozens of interviews with workers who were afraid to speak up their bosses have threatened to fire them or report them to immigration some feared for their safety because of the millions involved on the part of the employer I'm scared of my life this worker is a witness in one of the largest cases involving residential care wage theft I wanted to quit but I needed the job I needed to survive while working for the operator of this care home she says she rarely had time to stop and eat I wasn't happy I was crying all the time I wanted to go home I questioned why am I in this profession her former employer adachi alone boarding care has been cited by state regulators for more than seven million dollars for unpaid wages and penalties involving almost a hundred and fifty workers the care home company has appealed denied any wrongdoing and refused further comment Simpson says these sorts of pay disputes arise from caregivers just not keeping track of when they're off the clock caregivers will spend lots of time just doing their own personal stuff while they're in the home on their phones texting maybe even texting back home to their families but they're not logging in and logging out when they do that he says the solution is educating care homeowners on labor laws to see this in action we attended a conference his group six beds organized so to me the living model do it if done right is though is a win-win George guten Aryan senior vice-president at six beds tells care home operators that having a single live-in caregiver is a good way to save money on payroll you want your workers who stay overnight on the premises to be classified as live-in so that you can take advantage of that because otherwise you're gonna find yourself in the 24-hour worker boat and that's gonna involve more payment operators must pay a live-in caregiver went on duty but not always for sleep time and breaks but basically what what you need to make sure is they have an opportunity to get five hours of sleep the five hours don't need to be continuous Pat McGinnis from California advocates for nursing home reform says that when caregivers are work to the point of exhaustion it affects patients well has a terrible effect on resident care when you have to work 24 hours a day with no reprieve she says the requirements to operate a cure facility in California are far too lacks do you need more training to be a manicurist to do somebody's nails than you do to run a residential care facility for the elderly well it is a detrás servitude congresswoman rosa DeLauro says regulators need the resources to crack down on wage theft the Department of Labor is being hollowed out so that it cannot perform the function that it is established to be able to perform to protect workers and to make sure they are not getting ripped off by their employers an appropriations bill she introduced would boost federal funding to enforce labor laws it passed in the House Appropriations Committee and will now go to the House floor caregivers such as Julie Radu de hope the bill will force unscrupulous operators to face tougher consequences when you abuse animals you can end up being in a jail and we're human being so I feel like worse than animals meanwhile caregivers around the country will continue to push to be paid fairly and treated with dignity for the crucial services they provide I'm Jennifer gaalan in San Francisco California you

Channel: Reveal

Views: 20,011

Keywords: Elder Care, Minimum Wage, Wage Theft, Medical, Aging, Assisted Living

Id: 0iG72aK55C8

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019