Senate Bill No. 804 – VIRGINIA - Minimum Wage for Au Pairs

[Anonymous]

So I got the update from CC that sounds like they are putting the amendment into the minimum wage bill... anyone has more details about what is actually going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I got the update from CC that sounds like they are putting the amendment into the minimum wage bill... anyone has more details about what is actually going on?

Lettrer from Cultural care on 2/26:

Dear XXXXX family,


Thank you all for your outreach and engagement to public officials in Virginia. Please see below information regarding our advocacy efforts.


What happened to Senate Bill 804?

Senate Bill 804, relative to eliminating the exclusion for those in domestic service from the Virginia Minimum Wage Act, was heard on the floor of the House of Delegates today but no action was taken yet; the bill does not include an exemption for the federal au pair program. As noted in our last email, we have been pursuing multiple legislative vehicles to address our concerns for the protection of the federal au pair program.


What other legislation could serve to protect the au pair program?

Today, with the help of several of your legislators in the House and Senate, the House Labor and Commerce Committee passed an amendment for au pair exclusion from the Virginia Minimum Wage Act within Senate Bill 7. The bill as a whole seeks to increase the state minimum wage across all workers. In approving the au pair exemption amendment, the Committee included the program as part of the section that defines exempt employees from Virginia Minimum Wage law.


What happens next in the legislative process?

Senate Bill 7 will now be assigned to the House Appropriations Committee (http://hac.virginia.gov/welcome.htm) for review and approval.


How can I continue to help?

Many legislators supported the program in the House Labor and Committee vote today. We would strongly encourage you to send an emailing expressing your gratitude for their support for the federal au pair program. You can direct that communication to the following Senators and Delegates (for your convenience, you can include them all on the same email):


Subject – Thank you for your efforts in supporting an exemption amendment for the federal au pair program to Senate Bill 7

Senator Richard Saslaw at [e-mail]

Senator Jennifer McClellan at [e-mail]

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We want to thank you all for your efforts thus far. We will continue to keep you updated as the bill moves through the legislative process and if there are additional steps that families can take to support the program in Virginia.


Thank you,


Natalie Jordan

Senior Vice President

Cultural Care Au Pair

[Anonymous]

dammit - i was hoping this would pass so i could punt my average AP, even though we only use 20 hours a week i was going to use this as an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:dammit - i was hoping this would pass so i could punt my average AP, even though we only use 20 hours a week i was going to use this as an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Well...then there is this:

https://bluevirginia.us/2020/02/strike-all-exemptions-from-the-minimum-wage

What some fail to understand is that au pairs DO get pay that is based on the minimum wage. Their stipend accounts for all of the other benefits they get (room, board, car use, car insurance, phone, and SO much more) by allowing the total to be reduced by 40% to account for these costs.

So, au pairs get a stipend that is calculated at “minimum wage” x 45 x .60. They get this full stipend whether they work 45 hours or 20 hours or 5 hours or no hours each week. They may not work more than 10 hours a day. They must get 1.5 days off each week. They must get two weeks vacation.

Here’s the deal - raise the minimum wage. No problem. Just continue to account for the other benefits as part of total compensation. For example, if minimum wage goes to $11, the new stipend reasonably would be 11x45x.60 = $297. Again, that is a stipend that accounts for the benefits of room and board (and many other things) and is paid REGARDLESS of whether the au pair works 45 hours or 20 hours or no hours.

Enough with the nonsense of comparing this program to human trafficking, slavery, indentured servitude, etc.

[Anonymous]

That article is ridiculous. I sent Blue Virginia a note on this.

Anonymous wrote:Well...then there is this:

https://bluevirginia.us/2020/02/strike-all-exemptions-from-the-minimum-wage

What some fail to understand is that au pairs DO get pay that is based on the minimum wage. Their stipend accounts for all of the other benefits they get (room, board, car use, car insurance, phone, and SO much more) by allowing the total to be reduced by 40% to account for these costs.

So, au pairs get a stipend that is calculated at “minimum wage” x 45 x .60. They get this full stipend whether they work 45 hours or 20 hours or 5 hours or no hours each week. They may not work more than 10 hours a day. They must get 1.5 days off each week. They must get two weeks vacation.

Here’s the deal - raise the minimum wage. No problem. Just continue to account for the other benefits as part of total compensation. For example, if minimum wage goes to $11, the new stipend reasonably would be 11x45x.60 = $297. Again, that is a stipend that accounts for the benefits of room and board (and many other things) and is paid REGARDLESS of whether the au pair works 45 hours or 20 hours or no hours.

Enough with the nonsense of comparing this program to human trafficking, slavery, indentured servitude, etc.

[Anonymous]

Post all news concerning the bill in THIS thread, don’t start another one...

[Anonymous]

Who is writing this stuff on Blue Virginia? It is Care in Action, the C4 arm of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Who is the NDWA. They represent nannies and other domestic caregivers and spent over $300,000 last fall in the Virginia elections to get to this point:

https://vpm.org/news/articles/8021/domestic-workers-group-makes-first-foray-into-virginia-elections

Why would a group that represents nannies and other domestic workers have an interest in killing the au pair program?

[Anonymous]

Well, the mask just came off. Anyone who had any doubt about whether this bill is part of a concerted, national effort by the NDWA to kill the au pair program should look at the update to the article here:

https://bluevirginia.us/2020/02/strike-all-exemptions-from-the-minimum-wage

You can now see the white paper on au pairs prepared by the NWDA that your reps are seeing. Who will they listen to? Did you spend $300,000 in Virginia during their last election cycle?

Despite the $$$, do not let them forget who votes.

[Anonymous]

My friend had a live-in nanny who didn’t get a wage reduction in spite of getting live-in benefits. She said if the parents require a live-in, then you can’t really charge the nanny for her room and board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is writing this stuff on Blue Virginia? It is Care in Action, the C4 arm of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Who is the NDWA. They represent nannies and other domestic caregivers and spent over $300,000 last fall in the Virginia elections to get to this point:

https://vpm.org/news/articles/8021/domestic-workers-group-makes-first-foray-into-virginia-elections

Why would a group that represents nannies and other domestic workers have an interest in killing the au pair program?

They probably view au pairs as competition for nannies.

[Anonymous]

SB 804 is sponsored by Jennifer McClellan, shown pictured in this article touting the large sums of money given to her campaign by Care in Action:

https://www.wvtf.org/post/group-representing-home-healthcare-workers-donates-300k-female-candidates-color#stream/0

Is it any surprise that there is still NO AU PAIR EXEMPTION in the bill given the positions laid out by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and it’s lobbying arm, Care in Action here (mainly that the Massachusetts case should apply to au pairs in Virginia, and there should be NO AU PAIR EXEMPTION, and should follow what happened in Massachusetts):

https://bluevirginia.us/2020/02/strike-all-exemptions-from-the-minimum-wage

This was never just about helping domestic workers or increasing the minimum wage. How many people on this forum have paid money to a nanny placement agency? Do you really think that domestic workers are funding this advocacy? Care.com reports $161 million dollars in revenue and is based in, wait for it....Massachusetts. Huh. How about that?

For every legislator who says “oh this isn’t Massachusetts” or “we don’t need the exemption in this bill, it is in the minimum wage bill” I have this question for you - do you work for your constituents, or the 501(c)(4) that is funded by big companies that stand to profit from killing a federal cultural exchange program with over reach at the state level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend had a live-in nanny who didn’t get a wage reduction in spite of getting live-in benefits. She said if the parents require a live-in, then you can’t really charge the nanny for her room and board.

Right. But if you DONT require it, and are offering it as a benefit or as part of their compensation, then it is part of their...compensation.

I don’t care if my AP lives with me. But the state department unfortunately does.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else notice that care.com is a big supporter of NDWA:

https://www.care.com/press-release-carecom-ndwa-hand-in-hand-commitment-at-cgi-p1186-q62523119.html

And care.com’s CEO said this about the NDWA:

“ Here’s you link: “To attract and train more childcare workers, Marcelo believes the government should help raise their wages and implement better protections for them, especially domestic care workers like nannies or tutors. They “need to be granted the same protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act [than] most of us are accustomed to,” she says. She advocates for a National Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, versions of which have already been adopted by California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Seattle, according to the National Domestic Workers Alliance.”

Here: https://qz.com/work/1598208/the-ceo-of-care-com-describes-her-ideal-childcare-system/

Where is the first place families would go to search for care if they could no longer afford an au pair?

Well, care.com just sold for $500 million:

“ Care.com said it has had more than 1.5 million successful matches since it started in 2006, with 374,000 paying families as of the third quarter of 2019.

"We think its a huge marketplace — about a $300 billion market just in the U.S.," Levin said.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/20/iac-to-acquire-carecom-in-500-million-deal.html

And any guesses who finds the NDWA? Could it be any of the folks who invested in the early stages of care.com?

It’s not your local nanny doing this. When is the last time someone bin NoVa paid a nanny $15 an hour and was mad? Nope. This legislation is being pushed by people who would directly profit from killing the au pair program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well...then there is this:

https://bluevirginia.us/2020/02/strike-all-exemptions-from-the-minimum-wage

What some fail to understand is that au pairs DO get pay that is based on the minimum wage. Their stipend accounts for all of the other benefits they get (room, board, car use, car insurance, phone, and SO much more) by allowing the total to be reduced by 40% to account for these costs.

So, au pairs get a stipend that is calculated at “minimum wage” x 45 x .60. They get this full stipend whether they work 45 hours or 20 hours or 5 hours or no hours each week. They may not work more than 10 hours a day. They must get 1.5 days off each week. They must get two weeks vacation.

Here’s the deal - raise the minimum wage. No problem. Just continue to account for the other benefits as part of total compensation. For example, if minimum wage goes to $11, the new stipend reasonably would be 11x45x.60 = $297. Again, that is a stipend that accounts for the benefits of room and board (and many other things) and is paid REGARDLESS of whether the au pair works 45 hours or 20 hours or no hours.

Enough with the nonsense of comparing this program to human trafficking, slavery, indentured servitude, etc.

The car use and insurance is often for work/kids and not personal use. Personal use is a perk but no one is getting an Au Pair a car or use of one without driving required for work. That is not compensation to be provided tools for your job. Same with a phone. You don't have to provide a phone but choose to. If you take them on vacation, more than likely they are working so that is a perk for the employer not the employee.