Patient rehabilitation through hospital work under Fair Labor Standards

Payment of patients for hospital work assignments has become a matter of great concern for mental health institutions since the 1973 federal court ruling requiring the Department of Labor to enforce the 1966 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. A work program in compliance with Fair Labor Standards has been operating at Binghamton (N.Y.) Psychiatric Center since 1971. Certificates from the labor department permit the hospital to pay less than the minimum wage for patients in occupational training or in sheltered employment in a regular job. The authors believe that work therapy has important clinical and rehabilitative functions, and that patients should not be denied the opportunity for such work because of the court ruling.