NJ Domestic Workers Demand More Workplace Rights, Bill Advances

NEW JERSEY — They’re known as “domestic workers,” and in New Jersey, nearly 50,000 of them provide essential services like child care, house cleaning, cooking and gardening. Many are women, immigrants and people of color who work in private homes – far away from the public eye. And it’s time to give them some long overdue job protection, advocates say.

Earlier this week, a proposed law known as the “New Jersey Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights Act” took a big step forward when a state Assembly committee voted 3-1 in its favor. The bill now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for further review. Read its full text here.

According to the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), here’s what the bill will do if it becomes law:

• “Establish contracts between an employer and a domestic worker, documenting work hours, wages and duties”
• “Eliminate the safety and health exclusion to ensure safe and secure workplaces”
• “Guarantee a two-week termination policy that provides adequate notice for domestic workers”
• “Protect against threatening workers for their immigration status and restrictions against retaliation from an employer when a worker asserts their rights”
• “Provide privacy and anti-trafficking protections to ensure workers are allowed freedom in their communication and private housing outside of work”
• “Provide paid rest periods and meal breaks after working a certain number of consecutive hours, as well as a clause that a worker is not required to work more than six days for the same employer without a rest period”

The bill would also remove the exclusion of “domestic workers” from the Law Against Discrimination and the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law, and establish penalties for violations of its provisions, including penalties against “retaliation by the employer.”

The proposed law would apply to hourly and salaried employees, independent contractors, full-time and part-time employees and “temporary” workers. It would include people who “work in the residence of the employer for the purposes of caring for a child, serving as a companion or caretaker for a sick, convalescing, or elderly person, or person with a disability; housekeeping or house cleaning; cooking; providing food or butler service; parking cars; cleaning laundry; gardening; personal organizing; or for any other domestic service purpose.”

Here are some people who wouldn’t fall under the bill’s protection:

“The bill excludes from the definition of domestic worker any individual taking care of or providing services to that individual’s family member; an individual primarily engaged in house sitting, pet sitting, or dog walking; an individual working at a business operating out of a residence, such as a home daycare business; an individual whose primary work involves house repair or maintenance, such a roofer, plumber, or other similar contractor; a home health care aide while the aide is paid through public funds; an individual established as a kinship legal guardian of a child who lives in the residence, or an individual who participates in the Kinship Navigator Program, as authorized by the Department of Children and Families, as a caregiver of a child who lives in the residence and receives services provided by a kinship navigator service provider; and an individual less than 18 years of age.”

The Assembly version of the bill – which passed a vote in the Labor Committee on Monday – is sponsored by Britnee Timberlake (D-34), Mila Jasey (D-27) and Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-15). A companion bill in the state Senate is sponsored by Sen. Richard Codey (D-27), and awaits a vote in that chamber’s Labor Committee.

“Working class families in New Jersey often struggle to provide food, shelter, and many other basic needs to their families, and many of these families are comprised of individuals who are employed as domestic workers,” Timberlake said.

“Domestic workers deserve the same respect and dignity as any other employee,” Codey said when the first iteration of the bill was introduced last year. “No one should have to worry about whether or not they will be paid the wages they have earned, or have their safety threatened by their employer.”

“These basic protections are long overdue,” Codey said.

New Jersey wouldn’t be the first state to roll out such a law, its sponsors say. At least 10 other states and two cities have enacted legislation to provide rights, benefits, and protections for domestic workers.

According to the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development, domestic workers do currently have some job protections under state law. They include:

• In New Jersey, most domestic workers (except for casual and part-time babysitters), including home health care workers and live-in domestic workers, are entitled to the state minimum wage and overtime, which is 1.5 times your hourly rate of pay for hours worked over 40 hours/week. Example: If you are paid $20 an hour regularly, then you must be paid $30 an hour (1.5 x $20) for every hour you work in excess of 40 hours each week.
• Minimum wage is $13 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2022 and will increase annually to $15 per hour by 2024. For employers with fewer than 6 employees, minimum wage is $11.90 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2022 and will increase annually to $15 by 2026.
• An employer must schedule payday regularly, and employees must be paid at least twice a month and no more than 10 days after the end of the pay period.
• If employment ends, the worker must be paid by the next regularly scheduled payday.

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HERE’S WHAT CAN HAPPEN: STUDY

Here are some of the struggles that domestic workers in New Jersey and the rest of the nation face, according to a September 2020 study from the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University:

“Domestic workers across the United States face multiple challenges that are typically more severe than they are for other occupations due to the low value attached to care work and the difficulty of regulating work that occurs in private homes. Labor law violations, no benefits, lack of social protection, and precarious terms of employment are endemic among domestic workers. These concerns have gained increasing attention in recent years as the country’s aging population has contributed to an increased demand for paid care work, typically fulfilled by low-wage workers who are predominantly female and are often women of color from lower-income countries. In the U.S., 92 percent of domestic workers are women and about one third are immigrants. Remittances sent home by these domestic workers can account for a substantial portion of total remittances at a time when remittances are increasingly considered a sustainable source of funding for developing countries. In a “global chain of care,” these domestic workers are doing the care work that enables other women to participate in paid employment. The substitution of paid for unpaid care work typically performed by women applies not only to child care, but also to the care of elderly, sick, and disabled family members as well as housework.”

“Domestic workers in the United States earn some of the lowest wages among all occupations,” Rutgers researchers said.

Nationwide, many domestic workers struggle against wage theft, and are paid below minimum wage, see their paychecks withheld “arbitrarily” or don’t get paid overtime. The lack of formal contracts and unpredictable work schedules are also common problems, researchers added.

Other chronic issues? Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and other forms of physical abuse – a problem that has become increasingly relevant amid the #MeToo movement, researchers said.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

More than 70 domestic workers packed a recent New Jersey Assembly hearing on the proposed law, speaking in support of the bill.

Bimala Timilsina Regmi, a Nepali domestic worker and a member of the advocacy group Adhikaar, testified about the abuses she endured as a domestic worker when she was forced to work 10 consecutive hours without breaks and how she was not allowed to take a day off for a medical appointment.

Other support came from Steve Way, an American actor, comedian, and domestic worker-employer, and Jaqueline Quiles, Newark’s deputy mayor of community engagement.

Evelyn Saz, a former home care worker and an organizer with the NDWA, said the New Jersey Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights Act is more than a piece of legislation – it represents a “movement.”

“It is time for New Jersey to end the exclusion of domestic workers in the law, which open the doors for employers to mistreat this workforce,” Saz urged.

The New Jersey Domestic Workers Coalition includes: Adhikaar, Casa Freehold, Lazos de America, NDWA (National Domestic Workers Alliance), New Labor, Unidad Latina en Acción, Wind of the Spirit, 32 BJ, SEIU State Council, 1199 SEIU, Faith New Jersey, Latino Action Network Foundation, Make the Road, Time to Care Coalition, NDLON, and more than 84 organizations across New Jersey.

• See related article: Gov. Murphy Vetoes 'Temp Worker Bill Of Rights' In New Jersey
• See related article: Latina Workers In NJ Face One Of America's Ugliest Pay Gaps

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