New Jersey domestic workers’ rights law takes effect

Statehouse dome (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

A state law requiring employers to provide contracts, breaks, and minimum wages to largely immigrant domestic workers that are exempt from other New Jersey labor protections went into effect Monday.

The law, called the domestic workers’ bill of rights, extends workplace protections to housekeepers, in-home child care providers, cleaners, gardeners, and a host of others engaged in domestic services.

“This law is a crucial step to ensuring the fair wages, safe working conditions, and dignity every worker deserves, and to empowering those who are often overlooked yet play an essential role in the daily lives of others,” Labor Commissioner Rob Asaro-Angelo said in a statement.

As of Monday, employers must pay domestic workers no less than the state’s minimum wage of $15.13 per hour. Under prior law, part-time child care providers working primarily in their employer’s home were exempted from the state’s minimum wage.

Other provisions require employers to provide domestic workers with written contracts that lay out their job responsibilities, wages, schedules, breaks, and regular paydays, among other things. The contracts cannot include mandatory arbitration agreements or certain confidentiality agreements.

Under the law, employers must provide domestic workers with at least one 10-minute paid break every four hours and are required to offer employees 30-minute meal breaks after five hours of consecutive work.

Live-in workers cannot be required to work more than six consecutive days without an intervening 24-hour period of rest, which can be unpaid.

The law ends an exemption for domestic workers under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination’s definition of employee. The change allows domestic workers to sue over discrimination and harassment, among other things.

Separate provisions bar employers from keeping copies of domestic workers’ personal documents — like passports — and from recording their workers in a bathroom, their living quarters, or other places where they may change clothing.

It also requires workers to be provided with unemployment and paid family or medical leave benefits if they are otherwise eligible. To receive unemployment, a worker must be authorized to work in the United States, while paid family leave benefits require a valid social security number.

The law affords workers the ability to take employers to civil court over violations of the statute. It grants the court the ability to levy fines of between $975 and $13,653, half of which would be returned to the worker.

Not all excluded workers are covered by the law. Family members of an employer are exempt, as are dog walkers, individuals working at a business operated from a residence, and tradesmen like plumbers, roofers, and masons, among others.

Employees who work fewer than five hours per month or whose work is casual — meaning irregular and different from paid work they normally undertake — are also exempt from the labor protections.

If you are a domestic worker and believe your labor rights have been violated, you can make a complaint online or by calling 609-292-2305.

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