ON Sept. 26, 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that entitles personal attendants, which include caregivers and nannies working in private households, to overtime pay if they work more than 9 hours in a day. Personal attendants were previously exempt from overtime law.
The Industrial Welfare Commission’s Wage Order 15 currently defines two groups of persons who may be employed in a private household: general household occupations and personal attendants.
“Household occupations” means all services related to the care of persons or maintenance of a private household or its premises by an employee of a private householder. These occupations include the following: butlers, chauffeurs, companions, cooks, day workers, gardeners, graduate nurses, grooms, house cleaners, housekeepers, maids, practical nurses, tutors, valets, and other similar occupations.
“Personal attendants” include baby sitters and any person employed by a private householder or by any third party employer recognized in the health care industry to work in a private household, to supervise, feed, or dress a child or person who by reason of advanced age, physical disability, or mental deficiency needs supervision.
The recently enacted law is called the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. It essentially does away with the distinctions of household employee and personal attendant and simply defines what they do as “domestic work” which means services related to the care of persons in private households or maintenance of private households or their premises, which would include childcare providers, caregivers of people with disabilities, sick, convalescing, or elderly persons, house cleaners, housekeepers, maids, and other household occupations.
A personal attendant under the new law shall be entitled to one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over nine hours in any workday and for all hours worked more than 45 hours in the workweek.
The new law will take effect January 1, 2014. However, it also provides that California lawmakers have three years (or until 2017) to make the overtime requirement permanent. In the meantime, the governor is required to convene a committee of affected employees and their employers to study and report to the governor the effects of the legislation. The findings of this study may lead to further laws being made.
California’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights grants additional protections to personal attendants just as federal protections for direct care workers (such as home health aides, personal care aides and certified nursing assistants) were also recently expanded. The U.S. Department of Labor has revised the rules to require direct care workers to be paid minimum wage for each hour worked, and overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. The federal rules will take effect in 2015. However, they only apply to in-home workers placed by outside agencies. California’s new law provides broader protection because it includes workers who are directly or indirectly employed by the household.
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C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. is an experienced trial attorney who has successfully obtained significant results, including several million dollar recoveries for consumers against insurance companies and employers. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine, and is a member of the Million Dollar-Advocates Forum – a prestigious group of trial lawyers whose membership is limited to those who have demonstrated exceptional skill, experience and excellence in advocacy. He has been featured in the cover of Los Angeles Daily Journal’s Verdicts and Settlements for his professional accomplishments and recipient of numerous awards from community and media organizations. His litigation practice concentrates in the following areas: wage and hour (overtime) litigation, serious personal injuries, wrongful death, insurance claims, and unfair business practices. His law firm is currently class counsel to thousands of employees seeking payment of wages in California courts. You can visit his website at www.joesayaslaw.com or contact his office by telephone at (818) 291-0088. Inquiries to his law office are welcome and at no cost.