SB 804, without an exemption, will lump au pairs together with other domestic workers and place them firmly under state regulation AND federal regulation. This is the current state of affairs in Massachusetts.

Thus, there was a push to add an exemption for au pairs, as they are ALREADY regulated under federal law. This was firmly rebuffed by the bill’s sponsor, Senator McClellan. The argument was that the exemption would go in SB7, which raises minimum wage.

So, today there is no exemption for au pairs in 804. If SB7, which DOES have the exemption, is killed, all that is left is bringing au pairs under state regulation through 804.

This was likely the plan all along - the out of state dark money funding this probably was betting that Virginia would have difficulty passing minimum wage increases. So they insisted that Jennifer McClellan NOT allow 804 to be amended, but instead allow it to be placed in the minimum wage bill, SB7. That is exactly what happen. Now she is threatening to kill SB7 based on a $1 an hour wage difference across regions in Virginia several years in the future. Sounds more like an excuse to kill a bill that has an exemption for the program the people paid her $300,000 to kill.

Once again, I don’t know ANYBODY who thinks domestic workers should not be paid a minimum wage, or that the minimum wage should not be increased. The real problem is using the Virginia legislature to kill a competing program with dark money. A program that is federally regulated. That is the problem.

SB7 and its companion HB395 are in conference today. We will see what happens. It’s up to the NoVa representatives in the conference to keep the exemption for au pairs in place, and the rest of the NoVa delegation to support such a bill out of conference.

Anonymous wrote:The problem we now face is the prospect of Senator McClellan intentionally killing SB7 to ensure there is no au pair exemption. Sure, the minimum wage won’t raise, but HB804 would remain, and au pairs would now be lumped into a new worker status that would make Virginia like Massachusetts. A very good result for the competing care companies that paid $300,000 in dark money to kill the au pair program:

“The 23-member Virginia Legislative Black Caucus is lobbying to kill the Sen- ate’s regional approach. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the VLBC announced its opposition to anything but a statewide minimum wage increase, implying members would join Republicans to kill the bill if the regional approach emerged from a con- ference committee seeking to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation.”

http://m.richmondfreepress.com/news/2020/mar/06/virginia-house-senate-disagreement-threatens-propo/

Because, again, this was never about domestic workers or your local care giver. It was always about killing a competing program.

Every family I have spoken to supports an increased minimum wage for domestic workers. Don’t let this be a Trojan horse for a competing service to kill the au pair program with dark money.

Sorry, I don't live in VA but I am following this, if the Bill is killed how is that not a good thing?

Are the NoVa delegates going to fall into this trap? We are watching.

The problem we now face is the prospect of Senator McClellan intentionally killing SB7 to ensure there is no au pair exemption. Sure, the minimum wage won’t raise, but HB804 would remain, and au pairs would now be lumped into a new worker status that would make Virginia like Massachusetts. A very good result for the competing care companies that paid $300,000 in dark money to kill the au pair program:

“The 23-member Virginia Legislative Black Caucus is lobbying to kill the Sen- ate’s regional approach. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the VLBC announced its opposition to anything but a statewide minimum wage increase, implying members would join Republicans to kill the bill if the regional approach emerged from a con- ference committee seeking to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation.”

http://m.richmondfreepress.com/news/2020/mar/06/virginia-house-senate-disagreement-threatens-propo/

Because, again, this was never about domestic workers or your local care giver. It was always about killing a competing program.

Every family I have spoken to supports an increased minimum wage for domestic workers. Don’t let this be a Trojan horse for a competing service to kill the au pair program with dark money.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:How to kill your political career in three easy steps:

1) Take a bunch of $$$ from a special interest group and brag about it:

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

2) Push a bill through your legislature on behalf of the special interest group and refuse to allow your colleagues to amend the bill to carve out an exemption for your core constituency in NoVa. Make sure this refusal to amend is based on slanderous propaganda from the special interest group that gave you all of that $$$.

3) For some inexplicable reason, allow the world to see the slanderous propaganda, which reveals that, contrary to your statements, it DOES matter whether the bill is amended or not. Because that was the point all along. To kill the au pair program that competes with your special interest:

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

I am talking to you, NoVa delegation. You saw the NDWA ‘fact sheet.’ You saw that they argue that there is NO New York exemption. You know why this bill is being pushed through. Yet you offered NO amendments to SB 804. The exemption in SB7 is not enough, and you know it. SB7 has not even made it through reconciliation.

Your move. We are watching.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when virgins goes socialist....I mean blue in the legislature.
We will drop out of program immediately if this passes.

Well, Liberals are supposed to be looking out for the workers’ rights, right?

Except when it hits home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go ahead. Tell working mothers in NoVa they don’t matter. See where that leads.

ALL parents matter. So do the caregivers.

Literally everyone agrees that domestic workers should be paid minimum wage. This is a different issue. Please stop with the faux, specious virtue signaling and find a better hobby than trolling an AP message board.

Yes. All parents matter. And so do caregivers.

You know what else matters? Corruption in politics. And accountability at the voting booth.

We are watching.

Anonymous wrote:Go ahead. Tell working mothers in NoVa they don’t matter. See where that leads.

ALL parents matter. So do the caregivers.

Go ahead. Tell working mothers in NoVa they don’t matter. See where that leads.

If you find the argument compelling and valuable, share it. On Facebook. On Twitter. With your reps. I am only one voice. If you agree, make it many voices. Link to this thread. Use the arguments you see. Cite to the sources and let the truth speak. Regardless of what I say, the NoVa delegation will be held to account. Through primaries. Through general elections. If they take out the au pair program, we will start our own 501(c)(3). Jennifer McClellan took $300,000 to kill the program? How about one stipend ($200) from each of the 1,600 Virginia families to save the program. That’s $320,000. Add in former host families and it is more. Much more.

PP - your argument is compelling and valuable - but this is an echo chamber and no one is seeing this. Write an OP-ED or letter to the editor in your local paper - lets get the word out!

How to kill your political career in three easy steps:

1) Take a bunch of $$$ from a special interest group and brag about it:

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

2) Push a bill through your legislature on behalf of the special interest group and refuse to allow your colleagues to amend the bill to carve out an exemption for your core constituency in NoVa. Make sure this refusal to amend is based on slanderous propaganda from the special interest group that gave you all of that $$$.

3) For some inexplicable reason, allow the world to see the slanderous propaganda, which reveals that, contrary to your statements, it DOES matter whether the bill is amended or not. Because that was the point all along. To kill the au pair program that competes with your special interest:

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

I am talking to you, NoVa delegation. You saw the NDWA ‘fact sheet.’ You saw that they argue that there is NO New York exemption. You know why this bill is being pushed through. Yet you offered NO amendments to SB 804. The exemption in SB7 is not enough, and you know it. SB7 has not even made it through reconciliation.

Your move. We are watching.

Northern Virginia will remember who was paid by the NWDA to kill the au pair program when Jennifer McClellan runs for governor next year:

https://vpm.org/news/articles/7050/mcclellan-starts-pac-amid-speculation-on-2021-run-for-governor

Anonymous wrote: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.

Wow, I hope the agencies have good lawyers and are on the top of their game, because that facts sheet is pure powerful bullshit!