CarebearBooks AFH Intelligence Series
Understand your AFH payroll.Don’t just process it.
The complimentary Washington AFH Payroll Health Review. A short call to walk through how your caregivers’ hours, overtime, payroll and Labor & Industries reporting fit together.
Keep your current payroll provider. Nothing changes unless you want it to.
Who it’s for
Does this sound like you?
I have live-in or overnight caregivers.
My caregivers often work long shifts or go past 40 hours.
I'm not sure how their actual hours get written down.
I run more than one home.
I'd like to know how my payroll connects to what I report to L&I.
I want to see what my caregivers really cost each month.
Sound familiar? That’s exactly what the review is for.
Book my complimentary reviewWhat we cover
Five parts of your payroll, looked at together
Each part affects the others, so we look at them side by side.
Caregiver schedules
How your caregivers are scheduled, including live-in and overnight setups.
Tracking hours
How the hours caregivers actually work are recorded and checked.
Overtime
How long shifts and weekly hours show up in your payroll.
Payroll and L&I
How your payroll numbers line up with what you report to Labor & Industries.
What caregivers really cost
What your payroll tells you about the true cost of staffing your home.
One complimentary call
Covers all five, togetherRequest my complimentary reviewOne complimentary call
Covers all five, togetherCaregiver schedules
How your caregivers are scheduled, including live-in and overnight setups.
Tracking hours
How the hours caregivers actually work are recorded and checked.
Overtime
How long shifts and weekly hours show up in your payroll.
Payroll and L&I
How your payroll numbers line up with what you report to Labor & Industries.
What caregivers really cost
What your payroll tells you about the true cost of staffing your home.
Washington Supreme Court
July 9, 2026
Bolina v. AssureCare Adult Home LLC
Why now
The rules for live-in caregivers just changed
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that live-in caregivers in Adult Family Homes are covered by the state’s minimum wage law. The old rule that left them out no longer applies.
The case has gone back to the trial court, which will decide whether the ruling also applies to past pay or only going forward.
That makes this a good time to understand how your own home handles hours and pay, rather than guess.
Latest AFH Intelligence Brief
Five questions worth asking after Bolina
If any of these make you pause, we’re happy to walk through them with you.
Do you have live-in caregivers?
Can you explain how work time is told apart from time when the caregiver is truly off duty?
Could you show the hours actually worked?
Pick one caregiver and go back six months. Could your records show the hours they actually worked each day and each week? Washington requires payroll records to include both.
Do you see overtime coming before payday?
Can you tell when a caregiver is close to 40 hours, before the next shift adds more overtime?
Are breaks really breaks?
During a meal break, is the caregiver truly free from duties? L&I says a meal break must be paid if the worker stays on duty, has to stay on call at the home, or gets called back to work.
Do your payroll and L&I reports tell the same story?
Can you explain how your schedules and time records flow into payroll and your workers' comp reports? L&I has a separate category for adult family homes and a special way to report caregivers who work 24-hour shifts.
Payroll should do more than pay people correctly. It should help you understand your home.
No strings attached
Keep your current payroll provider
This review is about understanding what you have today and spotting questions worth looking into. You don’t have to switch anything. If CarebearBooks can help further, we’ll explain how. If a question needs a lawyer or another specialist, we’ll tell you that too.
Book my complimentary reviewComplimentary · 20 to 30 minutes
Request your Payroll Health Review
Pick a time online, or call or email us and we’ll find a time that works for you.
See open times and pick the one that suits you. It takes about a minute.
Prefer to write? Send us a message →
No cost. No obligation. No need to change payroll providers.
iEducational information only. This page shares general payroll and business information and is not legal advice.