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I’ve mentioned before how much I always enjoyed my summer job in high school as a nanny for a two young children. While I’ve never been a live-in domestic employee, I did spend at least 40 hours a week, every week of my summer vacation, taking care of kids. I loved it, but it was definitely hard work. My hours were 7am to 5pm. That’s ten straight hours of a 15 year old girl working as a nanny.
According to a proposed California law, if I were just three years older, that gig should have qualified me for breaks every two hours, health benefits, vacation and overtime pay. Someone sign me up for a nanny gig! That’s right, the ”babysitting’ bill“ just passed the California Assembly and its making its way to governor’s desk. The intention of the bill is to provide full-time care-providers with benefits and basic rights, such as workman’s comp and minimum wage. In theory, that seems pretty fair and understandable.
Unfortunately, the California legislature doesn’t seem to be thinking about how these laws would actually be applied. Breaks every two hours? So if my husband and I work outside of the home and we have a nanny come to our house and take care of our daughter, who is supposed to give her bi-hourly breaks? Is one of us supposed to drive home every couple hours? Do we need to have a second babysitter who would work at 15-minute intervals? Because neither of those things would happen. We would send our child to a provider that handles multiple children or one of us would stay home. Most likely, I would start writing all these wonderful posts while my daughter sat on my lap trying to “help” me push all the buttons.
This bill, whether it’s the intention or not, is going to make in-home nannies completely unrealistic for all but the richest of the rich, who can afford to pay more than one domestic employee at a time. And households with several staff members will probably be cutting down, now that they need to provide benefits and insurance. Middle-class families who were using nannies will either find a structured daycare or have a family member stay home with their kids. This is the only way I can see this bill playing out.
I’m still pretty confused about the need to regulate all domestic employees, while leaving in-home daycare providers without any rules at all. My daughter has done in-home daycare. Our provider, who I appreciated and respected more than I can ever describe, would watch up to eight children, depending on their ages, from 6am to 6pm. Because she technically owns and operates her own small business, she’s free to set whatever hours she wants. Yet another woman who chooses to watch one child at a time needs to be legally guaranteed breaks every two hours? I’m sorry that I’m so hung up on the breaks, but do you realize just how impossible that is? It means you either have two nannies or none.
This bill is going to further complicate the lives of working mothers in the state of California, as most families leave the female to decide and coordinate childcare. It will cause some mothers to stay home from work until their kids start school. And it will put a lot of domestic workers out of their jobs. Let me be completely honest, this is one trend that I hope doesn’t move eastward.
