NJ's domestic workers now must get minimum wage — but someone has to tell them

Only one-fifth of the funding a New Jersey lawmaker sought for the state’s new Domestic Workers Bill of Rights made it into this year’s budget. And advocates worry that’s not nearly enough to ensure house cleaners, at-home caretakers and nannies know they’re now entitled to the state’s minimum wage and other protections.

The budget Gov. Phil Murphy signed late last week includes $100,000 for education and outreach to workers and employers about the new law, which went into effect July 1. For the first time, domestic workers must be protected against discrimination and harassment, be given more breaks, be allowed more days off, and be provided with contracts that define their duties.

But advocates say without more support, it'll be hard to protect a workforce where a survey found 57% had suffered wage theft, and just 14% have contracts.

“If we're talking about 50,000 workers around the whole state of New Jersey, [$100,000] is basically a drop in the bucket,” said Lou Kimmel, director of New Labor, an organization that advocates for better worker conditions in the state.

The law also requires the Department of Labor to develop an enforcement program to collect and address workers' complaints that their employers are not adhering to the new rules.

Democratic state Sen. Britnee Timberlake, one of the bill's key architects, had sought $500,000 for education about and enforcement of the new protections. She said she'll keep fighting for more funding.

“We have to let people know their rights and responsibilities around minimum wage, overtime, sick leave, record keeping even, and just how to fight for their rights. So it's incredibly important and I promise to continue fighting for these dollars in order to get out into the community,” Timberlake said, adding that she was grateful to the Senate leadership for helping secure the funds that are being assigned to the program.

For now, Timberlake said the $100,000 will initially go to the Department of Labor, which will subgrant part of it to community organizations to educate workers and employers about the bill. But the amount of funding is coming up shorter than Timberlake sought, and some organizations in the state are concerned about their ability to make sure the state’s domestic workers are well-informed about the new law.

“It’s very sad,” said Ana Paola Pazmino, director and organizer of Resistencia en Acción, an organization focused on empowering and educating migrant communities in New Jersey.

Pazmino added that she’s also worried that the Department of Labor won’t have the “capacity to handle all the complaints that come in from workers.

New Jersey’s Domestic Workers Bill of rights has been in the works for half of a decade. New Labor’s Kimmel recalled that the activist push around this legislation began in 2019, when a coalition of immigrants and workers' rights groups in the state organized along with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to explore the issue in depth in New Jersey.

Timberlake said her “only regret” was that she didn’t name the bill after her late grandmother — Mary L. Whitley, a domestic worker who came from Durham, North Carolina, through the Black Migration into Harlem.

Murphy spokesperson Maggie Garbarino said the governor was proud to sign the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights into law earlier this year, but didn't address questions about advocates' push for more funding, or their concern that outreach and enforcement would be inadequate.

Timberlake noted that the state budget was “very lean” this year and that a lot of programs – including some in her own district – were not fully funded.

“But then there were a lot of programs that did so we will continue to try” to get more money in the future for the program, she said.

On July 1, the Department of Labor launched a portal on its website with information on the new bill's provisions, such as details about which types of workers are covered and what benefits workers are now entitled to. That site also includes a place for workers to file complaints with the agency., and has a sample contract that employers can use.

Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said the agency is “proud to be tasked with spreading the word about, and enforcing, the new rights and protections that are afforded to domestic workers.”

Stacy Kono, director of Hand in Hand, a national network for domestic employers, said that organization also created a sample contract for employers in New Jersey.

Kono, who helped lobby for the law to be passed last year in New Jersey, said employers in her organization’s network share the sentiments of workers that the new law is going to be beneficial.

“As we organize and talk with employers, they feel the same way,” she added. “They just need concrete tools.”

Kimmel said New Labor and other community organizations have been trying to educate eligible employees by “meeting workers where they are at” by going to places such as parks, laundromats and playgrounds to talk to people and make sure they know about the bill of rights. They also recently held a Facebook Live event with domestic workers explaining the new law.

Angela Ramos, an organizer with Resistencia en Acción and former domestic worker who still cleans houses occasionally, said her organization has also been using the independent radio station Radio Jornalera to get the word out as well.

“The work is still going to be done,” she said.” It might just be done in a smaller capacity,” she said.