[kenogranny]

Hi, I live in North Dakota. I take care of an 82 year old man who has a prostetic leg, glass eye, pacemaker, & alzhimers. I am his ONLY care giver as he is very stubborn. Stubborn enough in fact that his wife moved out of his home 8 1/2 years ago. She hired me to take care of him. She told me that she would give my $3000 a month if I would move in here and take care of him. Well on the 3rd of Dec 2007 I moved in. I give him his meds & eye drops, put his leg on give him baths, shave him, cut his hair,cook, clean, do laundry, order his meds, and I was taking him to any appointments (until his wife came and took the van over to her house). I also pay for ALL the groceries out of my wages!! I eat once a day, he eats like a horse. Well since Dec 3rd when I moved in here, I have had the following times off 1-29 hour shift, 1-10 hour shift, 1-34 hour shift (my folk's 50th Anniversary), 1-9 hour shift, 1- 7 hour shift, & 1-6 hour shift for a total of 95 hours off. I haven't been able to spend any holidays with my family. And I have NEVER seen a check for more then $2500. I called the North Dakota Labor Board & Job Service of North Dakota today and they told me that I should be getting paid $9-$11.11 an hour and I should not have to be the one to pay for the groceries. I also pay for the internet. She pays the lights, and cable as he lives and sleeps in his recliner in front of the TV. He refuses to sleep in a bed. Two weeks ago she tells me that she is putting his house up for sale and moving him to a nursing home. Then she desides to put her place up for sale too and plans to buy a condo and move herself and him into it. Well a couple of days ago, her place sold. I will be homeless in a couple of weeks and be unemployed and broke as she pays me in advance for the month. I want to know how much she should owe me. I am really getting burnt out as I am the only one taking care of him 24-7. I even had to buy and install one of the light fixtures in one of the closest as she wasn't doing anything about it. :( :confused:

[smearcase]

Nursing homes I believe are over $ 5,000 per month.
That includes food for the resident.
You probably spend $ 400 per month or more for groceries (which is not your responsibility)
If you are reimbursed for the food, that would be about $ 3,000 per month and they still save $ 2,000 per month.
If there is a lot of demand in your area for the type of care you are providing, $ 3,000 or more per month sounds very reasonable to me.

[Fr_Chuck]

Well if you have accepted this pay for over 8 years, I doubt that now you have much of a claim, since when it started was when you should have posted a complaint.

But time for a labor attorney to see if you have a case, Also what records did you keep do you have all the food reciepts for all those years, and if you were making still over 2000 a month and living there, how come there is not a lot of money saved up?

Next of course is the issue if you were an employee, they were to be paying their share of your federal taxes and paying unemployment insurance for you also ** I doubt if they did. All of this is valid for the law suit. OF course if you did not file taxes any of those years, that is another issue also

[kenogranny]

Well if you have accepted this pay for over 8 years, I doubt that now you have much of a claim, since when it started was when you should have posted a complaint.

But time for a labor attorney to see if you have a case, Also what records did you keep do you have all the food reciepts for all those years, and if you were making still over 2000 a month and living there, how come there is not alot of money saved up ??

Next of course is the issue if you were an employee, they were to be paying thier share of your federal taxes and paying unemployment insurance for you also ** I doubt if they did. All of this is valid for the law suit. OF course if you did not file taxes any of those years, that is another issue also

I have only been worki at this job since Dec. 3rd 2007. 6 months!!

[tickle]

I would have been gone by the first month !