The Supreme Court recently ruled that home health aides and other companions employed by third parties are not eligible for overtime compensation under federal law. The June 11, 2007, decision, overturned a contrary decision of a federal appellate court in New York.

The Court found that the Department of Labor regulation was within the scope of its of rulemaking authority and that "an agency's interpretation of its own regulations is controlling unless plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulations being interpreted."

The Court concluded, "Where an agency rule sets forth important individual rights and duties, where the agency focuses fully and directly upon the issue, where the agency uses full notice-and-comment procedures to promulgate a rule, where the resulting rule falls within the statutory grant of authority, and where the rule itself is reasonable, then a court ordinarily assumes that Congress intended it to defer to the agency's determination."