Domestic workers speak out to make overtime requirement permanent

California already has a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights to ensure overtime pay, but that law has a sunset provision and will expire next year.

[...] domestic workers organizations are campaigning for the approval of SB1015, which would make the Bill of Rights permanent.

Nannies, housekeepers, cooks, child care workers, personal assistants and caregivers working in private homes are entitled to the $10 minimum wage under state law, but a recent survey by Mujeres Unidas y Activas found that some domestic workers were being paid as little as $15 for an eight-hour shift.

“We found many cases of domestic workers that, due to their legal status, were afraid of demanding fair wages because they needed the job and because they feared being fired,” López said.

Hina Shah, director of the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic, a nonprofit organization that gives legal support to domestic workers, said workers should not fear denouncing abuses because they are protected from employer retaliation under the Trust Act, a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013.

Shah said that employers who threaten workers with calling immigration because of their legal status are subject to serious penalties, including losing their business license and fines of up to $10,000.

[...] the Bill of Rights has helped many workers gain fair pay and dignity, said Lindsay Imai Hong, leader of Hand in Hand:

According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, from July 1, when the Bill of Rights took effect, until April, 281 domestic workers’ wage complaints were either settled, resolved or closed because of plaintiffs’ lack of following up through the process.

[...] several home care companies argue that the Bill of Rights has hurt their business and ability to provide affordable services to their clients.

Opponents to making the Bill of Rights permanent include the California Association for Health Services at Home, an organization that represents more than 500 home health and home care agencies, and companies Care to Stay Home and Comfort Keepers.

Braden Oparowski, director of policy, advocacy and public affairs at the Association for Health Services, said the Bill of Rights has affected clients’ access to in-home caregivers becauseof a rise in costs caused in part by the bill’s overtime pay requirement.