If you don’t know about the new legislation that will offer protections to nannies and other domestic workers that just passed in Albany, maybe it doesn’t affect you. Frankly, at this stage of the game with my kids it won’t affect me, either, and for that I am grateful. You see, less than a year ago, this bill would have caused me to seriously reconsider the entire structure of my life. I was a one of the dreaded nanny employers that I believe now are getting a bad rap.
First of all, I should stop reading the New York Times because it never ceases to get my blood pressure up. In this article about the proposed legislation from June 2nd For Nannies, New Hope For Workplace Protection, the headline lets me know this will be a biased account. See, us high-powered New York parents are exploiting poor, immigrant domestic workers, and said immigrants need the state (as if the state is their best friend!) to step in and protect them. O the evil striving classes and their entitlements!
Having worked as a freelancer for many years, and existing within the confines of a tight job market today, most people in the work force are not getting everything that they want, or everything that they deserve from work. I wish we lived in a better world where everyone got everything they want and feel they deserve from life. But we do not.
I was a freelancer when we hired our first nanny, and basically we told her the limit on what we could offer her correlated to our own deals with our employers. That is, I could not afford to pay for overtime, because I myself did not get overtime. I also did not get paid sick days at the time, although our nanny was paid for sick days. Ditto with Federal holidays. Still, I paid all of my take home pay to our nanny and she made a very good wage, plus we paid for her metro card. At the time, our rent was low and we could offer her a good deal and still squeak by. I should add, she left another job to come work for us because we offered a more attractive job of working with an infant (as opposed to a toddler). Since the cheapest day care we could find for infants between Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn was $2000 a month, paying her about the same to come to our home, plus the perks we offered, seemed fair. Everyone was happy.
Fast forward three years and our second son is on the way. By now, I’m a full staff employee at my ok-paying job, but our nanny had moved up in the world and now wanted to be paid more to come back to us. So, again we bite the bullet and realize all of my take home pay will be going to to child care for two years, and with a more expensive rent and a terrible market for my husband’s labor (construction), we don’t have a choice. Plus, no working mother can be seen coming in late, leaving early, or begging off time from work in order to accommodate the pick up and drop off times of the pricey day care centers. I would need to prove myself just as before, only competing with younger, kid-free colleagues. In offering our nanny wage she wanted, plus vacation, sick days, paid holidays, and metro card, I felt that I was an employer who treats others the way I wish to be treated. I understand not everyone is ethical, and that bad employers do exist. But I think tying people hands in what they can negotiate with employers with this legislation, which will trip up good employers as well, is the wrong way to go.
If I would have been required to pay overtime on top of everything else (already totaling $2500/month base), I would have had three options. 1) Quit my job and our family would live without health insurance (then there would be one less employed nanny, and after taking 3-4 years off how fun would it be to break into the job market again? Can you imagine?) 2) Leave New York City 3) My husband or I could get a second job and never be home, but at least we would eat and have a roof over our head.
I also think about it this way. When I was younger I worked many different kinds of jobs, in restaurants, in coffee shops, retail, you name it. The ability to pick up shifts from other workers was often key to survival. If you are a hundred dollars short for rent that’s due, which conversation would you rather have with your boss:
You: So-and-so needs off on Saturday, could I pick up that shift? I could really use the cash.
Boss: Sure that works well for everyone. You make a hundred dollars, I get a worker to cover the shift. See you Saturday.
Or this:
You: So-and-so needs off on Saturday. I’ve already worked forty hours, but I could really use the money. Would it be ok to take to take the shift?
Boss: I’d really like you to take the shift, but I’m going to leave it open to someone who hasn’t worked 40 hours yet. See, I’ll have to pay you time and a half by law, and I can’t afford to do that. Sorry but those are the rules.
So I think these laws will result in fewer parents taking up the nanny option. It just won’t be possible for most of us. With a lack of affordable care, I think more women will quit their jobs. More people will probably get fed up with New York and its lack of support and services and just leave.
Note to New York State: There is NO AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE in Brooklyn or Manhattan for infants unless you live below the poverty line.
If you are very rich, I’m happy for you and your good fortune.
If you are like us, in the middle, you are screwed.
What this law is really about is collecting more taxes for New York State, and eliminating the underground economy of domestic workers.
If New York City really cared about families, there would be many more options for infant care. There are hundreds of bars in our neighborhood and absolutely nowhere a working mom can find child care when faced with returning to work after maternity leave. My neighbor who runs the corner deli said, when I asked her about care for under-2s in Greenpoint, said “why don’t you just stay home?” as she sensed my desperation. At a certain point working is not just about money, it’s about much more than that. Benefits. A 401k so I can take care of myself when I’m old. Not wasting a college education I’m still paying for. In a way, this legislation is further penalizing working parents who are already caught in a dire situation.
I think sometimes labor organizers have their own agendas. But I hope, now that this law has passed, that I am wrong and that all parties involved, families and workers, will benefit. Sorry if this sounds harsh, I’m just happy this part of my childrens’ lives is in the past. There’s entirely too much stress involved in being an employer by morning/night, employee by day. My head would be spinning.
Needless to say, I won’t be having more children as long as I live in New York. How on Earth can we afford to take care of them?
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