Overtime Justice for D.C. Domestic Workers: Rollbacks With No Local Protections

Ninety years ago were the “good old days” for employers; they thrived on the economic depression, high poverty, and little restraint to curb their employees’ 16–18-hour days for exploitative wages. But thanks to the relentless work of labor movements and unions, their efforts led to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its trifecta of workers’ rights– child labor protections, a federal minimum wage, and mandatory overtime pay. The inclusion of the latter requirement reined in abusive work hours and granted historically powerless workers a time-and-a-half pay rate for any work performed beyond 40 hours in a workweek.

While foundational, the FLSA was far from inclusive; it largely excluded workers in Black-dominated industries such as agricultural work, domestic service, and some unionized trades. However, by the 1970s, nearly two-thirds of all U.S. workers were eligible for overtime pay due to decades of broadening eligibility to include workers such as restaurant workers, agricultural processing workers, and domestic workers. Nevertheless, live-in domestic workers and those who provided “companionship” services to an elderly person or a person with a disability

remained excluded. As a result, for over forty years, these domestic workers faced long hours and received, at best, minimum wage for the overtime performed. And for the domestic workers employed by a third-party employer, they faced an additional privation– they could legally be paid below the federal minimum wage.

Finally in 2013, President Obama’s Administration recognized the long exclusion of “home care” workers’ basic wage protections and narrowed FLSA’s definition of “companionship services.” Third-party employers, such as home-care agencies, could no longer avoid paying minimum and overtime wages when a domestic worker spent more than 20% of their weekly duties on personal care services. Thus, a D.C. live-in domestic worker who largely cooked and cleaned for an elderly person or person with a disability in addition to keeping them company and monitoring their well-being became entitled to full wage protections.

Despite domestic workers gaining a semblance of dignity for their work, the current administration wishes to undermine their rights. Last year, as a part of its nostalgia tour, the Department of Labor indicated its intention to reverse the 2013 FLSA companionship exemption. With this rollback, this administration signals a return to the “good old days, ” when worker protections were optional, and speed and cost were everything– like the Empire State Building, our Potemkin village of the 1930s.

With federal wage protections out, D.C. domestic workers now depend on local safeguards. But such protections do not exist. Eerily similar to the original FLSA exemption, our current local regulations exclude overtime protections for domestic workers who provide companionship services “for the aged or infirm.”  

D.C. domestic workers deserve dignity, not exclusions. This D.C. exemption is a denial of dignity for our domestic workers who care for loved ones in need. Instead of showing these workers our gratitude for being the backbone of our vulnerable family members, our silence and inaction reinforce the antiquated systemic inequalities domestic workers continue to face. History shows ordinary people can do astonishing things such as building skyscrapers or reforming outdated laws. If miners, factory workers, and domestic workers have fought for their own rights, what’s stopping you to support them? Call your D.C. councilmember. Urge them to remove this exemption. Demand justice for domestic workers. 

By: Diana E. Chicas García