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U.S. Department of Labor | June 18, 2024

Department of Labor finds Marlton, Cherry Hill companies shortchanged low-wage workers

MARLTON, NJ – Employers expect people working in the home healthcare industry to commit themselves to addressing their clients’ most basic needs and yet, federal investigators too often find — as they did in two recent South Jersey cases — some employers seem less than dedicated when it comes to paying their employees fully for their hard work.

Two recent investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division of Marlton-based Comfort Hands Home Care LLC of and Cherry Hill-based Mercy Home Care, Inc. resulted in the recovery of $531,192 in back wages and liquidated damages for a total of 322 employees, all of whom were denied overtime pay by their employers for hours over 40 in a workweek.

“Like many low-wage workers, people employed in the home care industry provide their clients with essential services and they rely on being paid all of their hard-earned wages to make ends meet,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Charlene Rachor in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. “When employers like Comfort Hands and Mercy Home Care shortchange employees’ wages, the impact is especially harmful. These workers deserve better.”

In both cases, the division determined the employer failed to pay the required overtime rates and did not maintain accurate records of hours worked, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Investigators determined the operators of Comfort Hands Home Care owed $134,572 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 43 home healthcare workers. Mercy Home Care owed workers their required overtime wages, including for time spent traveling between client locations in the Camden, Trenton and Cherry Hill areas, totaling $131,023 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.

“The outcome of these investigations should encourage other home care industry employers to review their pay practices to ensure they comply with the law or risk facing the costly consequences that come with these kinds of violations,” Rachor added.

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 and employers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of where they are from – and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurateby downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.