As of January 1, 2014, California’s new Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act, found at Labor Code Section 1450, et seq., provides that individuals employed as domestic workers in California (including nannies, housekeepers and maids) are eligible for overtime pay. The new law differs from the State’s existing overtime law that applies to other hourly employees in two key respects. First, overtime is not available until the domestic worker has worked at least nine hours (instead of eight hours) in a workday and forty-five hours (as opposed to forty hours) in a workweek. Second, the new law is only effective until January 1, 2017 (although it could be extended).
Additionally, parents in need of a date night can rest easy knowing that the new law does not apply to persons under eighteen years of age who are employed as a babysitter or those who work irregularly or intermittently as babysitters.