I work for a company where I go into peoples homes to help them with every day life so they can live at home. I was told that they do not have to pay us over time. Is there any reason a company doesn't have to pay over time?

Do you want to read the following link & see if any of the home health care industry exemptions would apply to you.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs25.pdf

The federal law on overtime is FLSA, and the federal government in it's wisdom has something like 100 exceptions to overtime, minimum wage or both. FLSA is very much an "exceptions-R-us" kind of law. Everyone (employees and employers) should want to know the rules specific to their industry (if any). The following location is a good place to find the federal exceptions. State law of course varies from state to state. States cannot make federal law go away, but they can create their own rules. And some states do exactly that.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/fact-sheets-index.htm