The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
July 19, 2019

Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Would Bring Overtime Pay, Union Rights
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, domestic workers and their supporters are rallying behind a
bill that would grant them the right to overtime pay, meal breaks and
collective bargaining. Under federal labor law, domestic workers are
excluded from many of the protections most workers receive; the Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights Act would change that. The bill is co-sponsored
by Washington Congressmember Pramila Jayapal and California senator and
2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris. This is Ai-jen Poo, director of
the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Ai-jen Poo: "The need for child care and elder care is exploding,
especially as the Baby Boom generation ages and people live longer.
These are jobs that are not going to be outsourced. They won't be
automated. These are going to be a large part of the jobs of the future.
And now, thanks to all of you, we are going to make these jobs good
jobs."

Domestic workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. and
suffer high rates of wage theft and sexual harassment on the job.


.