Would the NY Nanny Law Help You (if you worked in NY)?For the past two weeks we have been discussing how New York State Legislature passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, making New York the first state in the nation to provide new standards of worker protections for more than 200,000 employees in an industry which has gone unregulated for decades.
We want to see if nannies across the nation are already have the rights spelled out in this law. Yesterday we asked if nannies have paid holidays. Today we wonder if you receive overtime pay?
Legislators and New York Governor, David Paterson, have reached a reconciliation deal that will give nannies overtime pay. The legislation sets a 40-hour work week for standard live-out domestic workers and a 45-hour week for live-in employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The proposed bill would also require at least one day off for such workers and any work beyond the weekly limits must be compensated with overtime pay, which is time-and-a-half. The bill also requires employers to give nannies three paid off-days each year.
Do you already receive overtime (time-and-a-half) pay?
Thanks for asking this since I am a nanny working in NY and the new nanny law might effect me. See, I am salaried but make $24 per hour. I work 50 hr week. Now if the parents arrive home late I haven't asked for overtime. I just get the $24 per hour more and they sort of pro-rate it in quarters ie they round it up to every 15 is $6. I just always felt it wasn't necessary to pay me $36 per hour for extra hours. Personally, it I don't mind.
ReplyDeleteNow, once this is law accounting will get sticky. Also, I am confused becasue I make more than $60K but only take home $40K after taxes. Is that because the nanny tax software the parents use is wrong and calculating overtime? I haven't questioned it before, but my friends being paid under the table take home a lot more than I do.
I don't get overtime because I make salary no matter what and make $24 an hour. I don't think it's necessary to pay me $36 per hour for extra time. The nanny law will effect me since I live and work in New York.
ReplyDeleteBut, even though I make over $60K my friends paid under the table are bringning home more than me. Could it be the nanny tax software my boss is using is calculating I make a lower rate to consider the 10 hours I work over 40 hours per week? I mean I take home less than $900 per week while friends take home more, but make less.
Anonymous, maybe what you can do is go to couple of the different nanny tax calculator sites, plug in your information, and see what they generate as information on what should be paid and compare it to the stubs you get from your employers.
ReplyDelete----------------
In answer to the question, I am a live in so I don't qualify for the overtime kicking in. With my most recent job and a few in the past my bosses still paid me hourly. With the condition that I got paid 40 hours a week whether they used me for all that time or not.
One former boss abused the contract, I gave notice at 8 weeks when I realized she wasn't going to change. When I think of her, I find my personal reason to not like this law.
Historically I have always, always, always, had Satudays and Sundays off, this former MB wanted me to work Saturdays and would have used this law as an excuse to do so. She didn't care that I, her friends and coworkers told her it was not something done by good employers.
She probably would have disregarded the part about overtime compensation at 45 hours. Or, she would have set a lower hourly rate to start with, say barely above minimum wage so that when time and a half kicked in she wouldn't have to pay out as much.
I do better with my hourly rate now, than time and a half.
This law only gives 3 paid days off, hello I get 10. Now I wonder if I were nanny in NY if it would be a bigger fight to have PTO now. Here in DC some of us get the Federal Holidays off paid as our employers do. And I did have some employers in other parts of the country that had that mindset about Jewish Holidays besides the Christian ones.
I wonder why if Domestic Workers Organization really wanted a decent bill why didn't they fight for more standard employee vacation rights. Because some of us work for people that can take a lot of personal days, vacation days, and sick days. I would have needed that protection with some former jobs where I worked for divorced parents. I left a job because contract terms were violated regarding this (and other things), they wanted me to take 3 weeks unpaid because the kids were with the other parent.
This is why I learned with so many loopholes in laws to negotiate on my own.
I DO GET OVERTIME PAY! I'll tell you why. I work in NY and it is already the law!
ReplyDeleteA LIVE OUT nanny is already entitled to be paid an overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a week. Overtime rate is 1.5 times the regular hourly rate.
LIVE IN nannies in New York already have overtime after 44 hours in New York.
These already exist. It's the law! Nannies need to know that and enforce it!
I keep trying to leave comments and not working so I'll try quickly again. (Must be the heat).
ReplyDeleteOvertime is already the law. In NEW YORK live outs are entitled to overtime pay (1.5 times regular rate) after 40 hours.
In NY live ins also get overtime after 44 hours.
Who actually follows this law though for their nannies in NY? I don't ask for overtime unless I work a holiday which they tip me high anyway.
Overtime is already law in NY. Live out after 40 hours per week and live ins after 44 hours per week. Everyone I know works more than that. If they haven't already negotiated overtime passing this law will not change those salaries for those nannies.
ReplyDeleteI do make OT I negotiated it. I doubt passing the law will make much of a difference. But it might help nannies negotiate OT.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI am in Atlanta and so the law doesn't benefit me here but I am still going to implement it within my Nanny Contract bc I don't feel like it's asking to much because I am still working a 50hr work week and getting salary but I am going to make sure my salary reflects the overtime rate within it and have it broken down in my contract. I think it's the Nanny's redpondsibilty to be an advocate for what she wants in a position and neg on some things, bc if not you will be taken advantage of.
Good idea Career Nanny but at the end of the week you will still make what you are making already, right?
ReplyDeleteI mean nannies ask for overtime but then just lower their typical rate and end up with the same money at the end of a typical week (not when they work a day overtime but just a few hours).
I don't ask for overtime because I feel I make enough.
Don't most nannies work more then 45 hour weeks? Nannies have to work when working parents travel to work and back home and they typically work a 40 hour week so what full time nanny doesn't work more than 40 hours? I don't know any full time nannies that are done at 40 hours.
I do have a friend that needs to leave by 6pm each evening so she finally told the parents she'd need overtime because she assumed the extra money would get them home on time. But, her logic was wrong. They can't get home earlier. They try just can't do it.
I don't get overtime and I think it might be a deal breaker if I asked for it.
No I don't get overtime and the comments constantly of blaming nannies for not knowing how to negotiate is frustrating. Why didn't the agency do that for me?
ReplyDeleteI don't get overtime but I am paid my approx hourly rate for any time I work over 50 hours per week. My pet peeve is I am paid Friday mornings and if I stay a little bit late on a Friday that's never included in the next weeks paycheck.
ReplyDeleteI am glad this law was passed for NY nannies, but isn't just a NY problem nannies statewide are getting taken for granted it's a problem across the entire industry. I think that we sometimes get blinded by the weekly salary that we forget that working beyond 40hrs a week and not being paid overtime is a crime. I think we need to take a look at the salary and see how often we even work pass our salaries agreed upon hours and not get paid 4.
ReplyDeleteAs for Agencies I don't let agencies neg my salary, contract and benefits that's my respondsiblity. We all know once we go on the interview and see the household enviroment that we know what type of job this is going to be.
What I meant abt including the additional hours in my salary I was thinking like this 40hrs at $550 a week which breaksdown to 13.75 hr and the additional hrs would be at 20.62 which will bring you to $ 653.10 a week.
I hope that helps with what I was saying. You made some good points .
Lisa, Maryland has overtime for live in nannies! Maryland and NY already have overtime laws in place for live in nannies so you and your other live in friends in that area might consider finding jobs in Bethesda.
ReplyDeleteImani O
Imani,
ReplyDeleteI live in NoVA we don't have that law here.
But I can say I am well aware of it as I'm applying for jobs in MD now, and I'm calculating it into what I am going to ask for in a salary. (Thanks though.) Because I think it doesn't sound as harsh to say this is my rate for 40 hours, which sounds average, but this is what it becomes over 40. As opposed to me saying I want X amount a week, because that X amount sounds over the top.
Although the nice thing about DC and NoVA being so close to MD is that the good nannies can say hey if you aren't going to honor some of these conditions we can just cross the Potomac where they are.
For the anonymous above who was frustrated with the blame the nanny for not negotiating thing and why didn't the agency do better. Look at all of this as part of on the job training and learning which happens in every profession.
Besides working as a nanny, I've been in other professions where I was on salary and it meant you did the job for that pay range no matter how many hours there. At times with my salary positions I have gone under minimum wage by the a Wednesday afternoon with two full days still to go. THUS, you really learn, enough of that BS and negotiate terms better in the future.
In nanny work agreements, there can be sections devoted to what hourly take home is, and what overtime will be. This is the way it should be written as opposed to the salary thing. Technically, I believe that is how it's supposed to be done.
What I also have in mine though so that I'm not out of luck when they take off or go on vacation and not need me is a clause that says I get paid 40 hour minimum regardless so that I can maintain my own budget (parents respect that last part very much.)
I have been working in the state of Texas for more than 20 yrs as a Nanny.
ReplyDeleteand for a long time I ignored about FlSA ( fair labor standards act ) after my last 4 years of work is when I found out that my former employer knew about FLSA is a law that protect Nannies, and any domestic employees. but he never paid me for all the over time I did in all this years, it was shocking to know after long long time that I wasn't getting pay over time since I was working 55 hours or more per week.
I have been reading this blog and it helps me to open my eyes even more. this so interesting to find out how employers abusive their employees.
Dear anonymous above:
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to remember that as nannies we have to NEGOTIATE our own work agreements. So if the parents don't follow Fair Labor Standards it's our own fault for not demanding or negotiating fair standards.
When we say it's ok to pay us under the table, or not pay overtime, or not health benefits we are allowing them to treat us unfairly.
You are only a door mat if you let people walk all over you.
I know the economy is hard now so just look for better jobs while you are employed and be patient.
You have to decide to not accept jobs that don't follow fair labor laws.