You get what you pay for...

Home health care companies are not happy with the Obama Administration’s push to require that home health workers receive minimum wage, despite the industry being one of just a few to maintain profits during the worst of the recession, reports USA Today.

Minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour, and a Labor Department proposal issued in December calls for home health agencies to follow federal wage and hour laws for their workers, overturning a decades-old law that exempted home health care aides from federal wage laws.

Home health workers were never meant to be excluded from the law’s provision, according to the Labor Department, but changing the rules would affect the quality and cost of care for consumers, the industry says.

With Medicare and Medicaid accounting for about 75% of home health care service revenue, USA Today reports, salary increases in the industry could mean that the already-stretched government programs won’t be able to keep up.

Read the full USA Today. They recently ran another article talking about how high turnover affects home health quality, and how this could be related to low wages.