A federal judge in Washington D.C. struck down the new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulation extending the federal overtime and minimum wage requirements to home care workers employed by third-party businesses. The court’s December 22, 2014, ruling in Home Care Association of America v. Weil vacates the new regulation and means that the amendment will not take effect on January 1, 2015.

The final regulation eliminated the minimum wage and overtime exemptions for third-party employers as of January 1, 2015. In issuing its order vacating the new regulation, the court relied on a 2007 case out of the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the validity of the third-party exemption and the fact that Congress has not acted on several efforts to abolish the exemption. The court stated, “the Department of Labor amazingly decided to try to do administratively what others had failed to achieve in either the Judiciary or the Congress.”

Note that even if third-party employers qualify for the FLSA exemption following the December 22 ruling, they may still be subject to their state’s or local government body’s minimum wage and overtime requirements.