BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 241 (Ammiano) - Domestic Work Employees: Labor Standards
Amended: July 1, 2013 Policy Vote: L&IR 3-1
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 19, 2013
Consultant: Robert Ingenito
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 241 would establish new protections for
domestic work employees, as defined, who work in private
households.
Fiscal Impact:
The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) would incur
ongoing staffing costs of $285,000 (special funds) to
review, investigate and resolve claims.
DIR would incur one-time costs of $50,000 (special
funds) to design, prepare and post education materials.
DIR would have one-time costs of approximately $50,000
(special funds) to update, print, mail, and process a new
wage order detailing the requirements of this bill.
Background: In general, domestic workers are largely excluded
from some of the more basic protections afforded to other
workers under state and federal law, including the rights to
overtime wages, meal and rest period rights and safe and healthy
working conditions. Domestic workers may suffer discrimination,
since California's Fair Employment and Housing Act only
prohibits employers with five or more employees from
discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national
origin, pregnancy, age, disability, marital status, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or on the basis of an English only
policy. California occupational safety and health law excludes
'household domestic service.'
Proposed Law: This bill would enact the "Domestic Worker Bill of
Rights" to provide protections and regulate the wages, hours,
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and working conditions of domestic work employees, as defined.
Specifically, this bill would (1) define various terms, and (2)
establish specific employment rights for domestic work employees
that include the following:
A right to overtime compensation as provided under
existing law.
Rights to existing meal and rest period requirements for
personal attendants.
Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep for a domestic work
employee who is a live-in or is required to be on duty for
24 consecutive hours or more, except in an emergency any
time worked constitutes hours worked.
Specifying that for a personal attendant accompanying a
person with a disability when traveling out of town, time
spent with the person in transit and attending to or
carrying out the directives of the person constitutes hours
worked, as specified.
A domestic work employee required to sleep in the
private household of his/her employer must be provided with
a separate room that is a decent and sanitary sleeping
accommodation, and shall not be required to share a bed.
Permitting a domestic work employee who works five or
more hours a day to choose the food he/she eats and to
prepare his/her own at the job site's kitchen. Except for
households with religious, dietary or health related
restrictions.
Related Legislation: AB 889 (Ammiano) of 2011, as originally
introduced, was almost identical to this bill. However, AB 889
was subsequently amended to require the Department of Industrial
Relations to adopt regulations governing specified working
conditions of domestic work employees. AB 889 was vetoed by the
Governor.
Staff Comments: Current law tasks the Industrial Welfare
Commission (IWC) within DIR to ascertain the wages, hours, and
working conditions of employees and to adopt rules, regulations,
and orders to ensure employer compliance. Under existing law,
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the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) and the
Office of the Labor Commissioner adjudicate wage claims,
investigate various employee complaints, and enforce Labor Code
statutes and IWC orders. This measure would require DLSE to
enforce the provisions of the bill regulating wages, hours, and
working conditions of domestic employees.
DLSE's Wage Claim Adjudication (WCA) unit currently determines
claims filed by employees covered under IWC Order 15 (Household
Occupations) and domestic work employees would be covered under
Order 15, except as otherwise protected under the bill.
DLSE expects that generally the same household occupations
covered under Order 15 will be the same as those covered under
this bill. All domestic workers covered in the bill will be
subject to the new worker protection requirements in addition to
wages and overtime compensation. These changes will likely
increase DLSE caseloads in Labor Code Section 98 adjudicatory
proceedings for this industry. This bill expands coverage to
personal attendants who were previously exempt from many
sections of Order 15, including overtime provisions.
As a result of additional rights created under this bill,
including recovery of penalties payable to domestic workers,
DLSE's existing WCA workload would increase. Anticipated costs
for DLSE related to the requirements for AB 241 is estimated at
$335,000, including (1) design, preparation and posting of
education materials ($50,000), and (2) increased personnel costs
(two full-time and three partial positions).
In addition to staffing requirements, passage of the bill would
also necessarily require that IWC Orders 15 be revised, printed
and made available for distribution as requested. Actual costs
incurred in 2006 to have the Employment Development Department
print, process and mail the one-page minimum wage order to
750,000 employers was $50,000 (plus $254,000 in postage costs).
The cost of printing the multi-page IWC Orders 15 but in smaller
quantities would be approximately the same (without the
necessity of bulk postage costs).
Any local government costs resulting from the mandate in this
measure would not be state-reimbursable because the mandate only
involves the definition of a crime or the penalty for conviction
of a crime.
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