The Obama administration is extending key government protections on minimum wage and overtime to the nation’s home care workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act will be amended to cover workers who care for the elderly and disabled in their homes. The move follows years of campaigning to undo the loophole known as the “companionship exemption,” which has denied basic wage and overtime protections to home care workers by placing them in the same category as babysitters. The new regulation will not take effect until 2015.