New Jersey Domestic Workers Gain Powerful Protections in the new Bill of Rights

In a significant move towards bolstering employment protections for domestic workers, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. A822/S723 (commonly referred to as the “New Jersey Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights”) on January 12, 2024. The bill, which will take effect in July 2024, significantly expands vital rights and employment safeguards for New Jersey’s domestic workers by addressing long-standing exclusions of domestic workers from protections enjoyed by most other types of employees. With the enactment of this bill, New Jersey joins New York, Illinois, Oregon, California, Nevada, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Virginia along with Seattle, Philadelphia, and the District of Columbia in recognizing the essential contributions of domestic workers and affirming their rights to fair treatment, dignity, and respect.

Historically, domestic workers have been marginalized within labor laws, leaving them susceptible to exploitation and abuse. In September 2020, the Center for Women at Work at Rutgers University released a report revealing that “low pay, lack of benefits, and rampant wage theft” occurred regularly within the domestic labor industry. Moreover, there is a lack of enforcement in protecting the existing rights of the more than 50,000 domestic workers within New Jersey. Currently, domestic workers are expressly excluded from key New Jersey employment laws, such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law. However, the Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights remedies this inequity by removing those exclusions. Domestic workers will now be entitled to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment protections, health and safety regulations, and privacy rights, bringing them under the umbrella of existing labor laws that safeguard workers’ rights across various sectors.

The law broadly defines “domestic workers” as “hourly and salaried employees, independent contractors, full-time and part-time individuals, and temporary individuals, each of whom works for one or more employers, and works in residence caring for a child; serving as a companion or caretaker for a sick, convalescing, elderly, or disabled person; housekeeping or hour cleaning; cooking; providing food or butler service; parking cars; cleaning laundry; gardening; personal organizing; or for any other domestic service purpose.” There are, however, exceptions to covered employees for family members providing care services, pet-sitters, individuals whose businesses are operating primarily out of the residences, employees of the state and the United States, household repair professionals., legal guardians and minors. ??????????

??????????? Under the new law, domestic workers are entitled to a range of rights and protections aimed at ensuring fair and dignified working conditions. Some of these mandates include:

·???????? Written contracts provided to domestic workers who work more than five hours a month, documenting essential terms such as hours, wages, and duties;

·???????? Mandatory rest days for live-in domestic workers and uninterrupted 30-minute meal breaks after more than five consecutive hours worked;

·???????? Prohibiting employers from keeping original copies of workers’ personal documents and recording them in bathrooms and living quarters;

·???????? Adherence to minimum wage requirements;

·???????? Advance notice prior to termination of employment (two-weeks’ notice for most domestic workers and four-weeks’ notice for live-in domestic workers);

·???????? The creation of the Domestic Workers Standards and Implementation Board to monitor and review the implementation of the law and make policy recommendations to the State regarding additional measures to be taken; and

·???????? Penalties against retaliation by the employer or hiring entity.

??????????? ?The safeguards and protections enacted in the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights make it a huge win for New Jersey’s domestic workers. For more information, you can read the full Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights here.

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