It is National Nanny Recognition Week - a time to recognize and acknowledge the positive contributions a nanny makes in the lives of the children she cares for. HomeWork Solutions is awed by the love, commitment, continuous learning, effort and passion of these women, professionally dedicated to the wellbeing of our children and to make this world a better one! 

Nannies and other household employees, with limited exceptions, are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act and must be paid no less than the greater of the Federal or state/local minimun wage.

The D.C. law firm of Seyfarth Shaw, specializing in Wage & Hour Litigation, reports that Federal lawsuits for unpaid wages and unpaid overtime - know as Wage and Hour Complaints - rose last year to an all time high of 8,126 cases.

The Dr. Phil Show is no stranger to tackling contemporary relationship and mental health issues in a straight forward, no nonsense manner. This week a woman in the audience asked Dr. Phil "When is the right time to take Mom's car keys?"

I recently met with a group of Geriatric Care Managers (GCM) to learn more about how they help their aging clients, and to brief them on upcoming changes to payroll laws that impact senior care.

Many household employers agree with their caregiver - whether this be a nanny, senior caregiver or other - on a set wage per week for a certain number of regular hours. This is common, and fine, yet a household employer who fails to translate this weekly wage into an hourly rate can open themselves up to costly wage and hour disputes. This is the last thing you want to be involved in, as wage and hour lawsuits are expensive. President Obama's initiative to protect workers from unpaid overtime means the US Department of Labor is adding 300 more investigators, and household employers will be even more at risk for getting caught.

The May/June time frame is a busy one for nanny hiring. Whether you are hiring a summer-only nanny or a year-round nanny, nanny screening is absolutely critical. This nanny can be the most important hire of your life, and your child depends on you exercising due diligence. 

I worked with a new client who had just hired a housekeeper to help her dad around the house. Her father needed help at home - laundry, cooking and just general homemaking services. A recent widower, he had never been terribly involved in household management according to his daughter, and it was getting away from him. My client was referred to an experienced senior homemaker who was looking for work through word of mouth, and she and her brother agreed to privately hire the housekeeper to help Dad several days a week.

"Safe Today. Healthy Tomorrow."

Americans over the age of 60 are the single largest demographic group in the country, surpassing children 18 and younger for the first time on record. Today's seniors express a marked preference for aging in place, defined by the Center for Disease Control as "the ability to live in one's own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level."