Home care workers in New York City are preparing for another hunger strike after the city council failed to vote on legislation that would end mandatory 24-hour workdays. The workers, who care for the elderly and disabled, argue that the current policy violates labor rights and constitutes a public health crisis.
Background of the Struggle
Last month, 15 home health workers camped outside New York's city hall for six days, refusing to eat until they secured a promise that the city council would vote on the No More 24 Act. The bill, introduced in 2022, would require agencies to split overnight home care assignments into two 12-hour shifts and cap weekly hours at 56. It would also impose fines on agencies that retaliate against workers who refuse 24-hour shifts.
Despite the promise, the vote has not materialized. Workers announced on Friday that they will go on another hunger strike. Zishun Ning, an organizer with the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, said, "We are very confident that our movement is getting bigger and there will be more pressure to do the right thing."
The No More 24 Act
Under current New York labor law, agencies that assign workers to 24-hour live-in shifts are only required to pay them for 13 hours, with the remaining 11 hours classified as designated sleep and meal time. However, most home health aides care for their patients around the clock, leaving them with little to no rest.
Council member Christopher Marte, who introduced the bill, said, "This is the only industry that allows people to work for 24 hours and only get 13 hours of pay. A lot of times it's 23 days in a row where people have to leave their homes and stay and sleep and eat where they work."
Workers' Stories
Lai Yee Chan, 71, entered the home care industry after New York's garment industry collapsed following the September 11 attacks. By 2007, her agency had pushed her into mandatory 24-hour shifts. Patients authorized for 24-hour care include those with advanced dementia, severe disabilities, or terminal conditions who cannot be left unattended. Throughout the night, aides must turn bed-bound patients every two hours, assist them to the bathroom, administer medications, and soothe them when they wake up disoriented. Chan said, "There was just no time to sleep."
Chan's agency, the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), provided health insurance through 1199SEIU. If she worked less than 130 hours a month, her family of five would lose health insurance. Her husband gave up his own job to care for their three children while she worked live-in shifts.
Despite the essential nature of their labor, home care remains one of the lowest-paying fields in the country. The median annual wage for home health and personal care aides was $34,900 nationally as of May 2024. Workers and advocates have filed wage-theft lawsuits since 2011, claiming the right to be paid for 24-hour shifts. In 2015, a Department of Labor rule extended minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers, but agencies found ways around them, including pressuring workers to skip breaks and paying flat daily rates.
Chan said she received a check from the CPC labeled "overtime" for $200, covering what the accounting office told her amounted to roughly 6,000 hours worked between 2007 and 2013. She knew the math didn't add up. "They thought that because we can't read English, they can fool us," Chan said.
Political Opposition
The No More 24 Act only has 16 co-sponsors on the city council, leaving it 10 short of the 26 needed to pass. It faces opposition from the Legal Aid Society and the Center for Independence of the Disabled New York, which argues that splitting a 24-hour shift into two 12-hour shifts would double the number of workers required per household, and the supply isn't available.
The coalition scored a victory last month when they secured a commitment from city council speaker Julie Menin to bring the updated bill to a vote in May. Menin's office formally denied making an absolute guarantee on the date but acknowledged the bill had been substantially updated. A council spokesperson said, "We look forward to phasing out the 24-hour workday, an outdated practice that places workers under extreme physical and emotional strain."
Advocates say Governor Kathy Hochul has been actively pressuring Menin to block the bill, threatening to withhold Medicaid funding. Hochul's office declined to comment. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on ending 24-hour shifts and co-sponsored the bill as an assemblyman, but workers say he has been absent since taking office. When workers staged a sit-in, his office sent a representative with a message that stung: that the mayor needed to consider those who wanted to work 24-hour shifts. Ning said, "People felt very angry. It's like they look down on the workers."
Looking Ahead
Caixiong Liu, 69, who spent 18 years in home care and joined the movement in 2022, said this work has caused her chronic back pain, insomnia, and memory loss. Liu and her fellow workers say they will soon strike again. The folding chairs will come back out, the signs will go back up, and the fasting will resume. "I don't want the next generation of workers to go through what I did," Liu said.
