Bayada Nurse Wage Settlement Finalized at $13.5M With Miller Shah LLP as Co-Counsel

by Matthew P. Suzor and Nicole Jefferson

On August 25th, 2025, nine years after the case was filed,  Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Erdos approved a $13.5 million BAYADA Home Health Care, Inc. wage and hour settlement in a class action brought by hourly-paid home health nurses who alleged unpaid wages and overtime violations between August 3, 2013, and September 10, 2024. Specifically, the home health nurses claimed violations of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act of 1968 as amended, 43 Pa. C.S. §§ 333.101 – 333.115, and of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law, as amended, 43 P.S. §§ 260.1 – 260.45, citing uncompensated reporting time at shift changes and uncompensated mandatory trainings

Miller Shah LLP served as co-lead Class Counsel for the plaintiffs alongside Shaffer & Gaier, LLC and Stephan Zouras, LLC, helping secure significant relief for workers under Pennsylvania labor wage and hour laws and signifying greater employer accountability.

Final Approval Order Affirms $13.5 Million Settlement Amount

Throughout the extensive litigation, Class Counsel spoke with dozens of current and former BAYADA nurses about their experiences working for Bayada, including issues surrounding whether they were paid  for time spent providing verbal shift reports to the oncoming caregiver (whether to another Bayada Nurse or to another caregiver, such as a family member) during shift changes, as well as for completing mandatory Honesty and Confidentiality and Infection Prevention training courses and certain required trainings through Bayada University. Class Counsel reviewed thousands of pages of documents and took more than 30 depositions and worked with a nursing expert and a damages expert.

A three-week trial was scheduled for September 9, 2024.  The Parties selected a twelve-person jury with alternates on September 6, 2024, and argued more than ten motions in limine as well as other trial-related motions.  Prior to opening statements to the jury, the parties reach a settlement. The Court entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement and ordering that notice be sent on April 14, 2025.  Notice was then mailed directly to over 13,000 Class Members.  The response of the Class Members was overwhelmingly favorable and there were no objections to the Settlement.

The final approval order provides that BAYADA pays a total settlement amount of $13,500,000, including attorneys’ fees and service awards to each of the named plaintiffs, Latisha Reed and Nadine Pierre. Settlement Class Members will receive their pro rata share of the settlement based on a formula that includes the number of shifts worked by the Class Member and the total number of shifts worked during the class period.

Recent Trends in Home Healthcare Agencies Minimum Wage and Overtime Violations

A recent rise in wage violations by companies that employ home healthcare nurses and aids coincides with rapid growth of the home healthcare industry, a shortage of home health aides, rising costs for home health agencies, and high industry turnover due to its intense physical and emotional nature. A 2022 study from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health at University of Pennsylvania found that over 30% of full-time registered nurses left their position at large home healthcare agencies.

Recent litigation in addition to the BAYADA litigation has led to favorable outcomes for nurses. In 2023, Judge Chad F. Kenney in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (EDPA) ordered Philadelphia-based Prestige Home Care Agency to pay over $7 million in backpay and unpaid wages after the Court found Prestige Home Care Agency failed to pay home health aides for travel time between clients’ homes in the same workday, failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records, separated the type of work performed by certain employees during a workweek, and paid certain employees straight-time hourly rates for all hours worked.

Similarly, Judge Petrese B. Tucker in EDPA approved a $1.4 million settlement against Red Lion Home Care, Inc. in 2022 after finding that the company paid straight-time for all hours worked and manipulated pay rates in overtime workweeks to evade the overtime premium payment in addition to submitting improper and incomplete time records for employees.

The results in BAYADA, Prestige Home Care Agency, and Red Lion Home Care suggest a judicial commitment to worker protection and employer accountability in the home healthcare industry. The Department of Labor (DOL) has also attempted to prevent future wage violations and to strengthen enforcement procedures. In 2021, the DOL launched an initiative through the Wage and Hour Division to investigate misclassification, compliance errors, recordkeeping violations, minimum wage and overtime violations. After completing approximately 1,600 investigations of home healthcare service providers nationwide, the DOL recovered $28.6 million in backpay for approximately 25,000 workers.

Miller Shah LLP provides comprehensive legal support in wage violation claims, backed by extensive experience successfully litigating class actions.