'We’re afraid': NJ domestic workers describe exploitation, call for bill of rights

New Jersey domestic workers — housekeepers, nannies and home health aides — say they lack basic protections in the workplace and are calling on the state to enact legislation to protect them.

Some workers have lost out on wages they are owed. Others have been hurt or sexually harrassed on the job. And the mostly foreign-born labor force worry that they will be arrested or deported if they report the violations.

"Very urgently, we need a bill of rights," said Mirian Mijanos, 50, of Freehold, a housekeeper who left one job, she said, after she was sexually harassed.

Mijanos and other domestic workers spoke Wednesday following the release of a survey conducted by the Rutgers Center for Women & Work, part of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

They are part of a fast-growing segment of the workforce that long has been vulnerable to exploitation, researchers say. But now they face a new challenge, the novel coronavirus, that is putting them in harm's way.

"The pandemic has made the situation even more dire," said Elaine Zundl, research director for the Rutgers Center for Women and Work. "COVID-19 led to sudden unemployment for many domestic workers, while leaving others on the front lines without basic health and safety protections."

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New Jersey could be an epicenter for the issue, given its affluent population and a large immigrant population.

The state had some 65,000 domestic workers in 2019, twice as many as it had in 2003, the Rutgers study found, thanks largely to an increase in home health care aides taking care of an aging population.

In New Jersey, 97% of all domestic workers are female, 52% are immigrants and 60% are non-white, according to the report.

Workers who spoke to reporters Wednesday said their jobs could be perilous. They described incidents in which they were owed money; denied lunch breaks; and injured due to the lack of safety precautions.

"I know many of us do not speak because we’re afraid, but we need to be the voice of all so we can achieve this bill of rights for domestic workers,” Heidy Cordero, a child care worker and activist with Unidad Latina en Acción in Princeton.

A survey released Wednesday of more than 400 domestic workers in New Jersey found 57% have been victims of wage theft in which they were owed money; 54% didn't have health insurance; and 49% had no sick or vacation time.

Another 19% said they weren't allowed to eat lunch inside their employer's home, a finding that could be attributed to domestic workers whose clients are from the Orthodox Jewish community and keep Kosher.

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Households who employ domestic workers have to abide by guidelines. Among them: They are required to pay at least New Jersey's minimum wage of $11 an hour in 2020 and overtime — 1.5 times hourly pay for people working more than 40 hours a week. Part-time babysitters are exempt.

New Jersey also enacted a Wage Theft Act a year ago, tightening the penalties on employers who shortchange their workers.

But the report found workers still have little power to protect themselves. Some 86% were paid in cash — a system that benefits both employers trying to avoid taxes and employees worried about detention and deportation, the researchers said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't regulate individual homes as workplace sites, and the state doesn't have its own protections, they said.

It prompted advocates to call on New Jersey to adopt protections similar to 10 other states. Among their goals is legislation that would:

• Not only guarantee minimum wage and overtime, but also health and safety protections, workers' compensation benefits and paid time-off.
• Provide health insurance, paid family and sick leave, disability and unemployment insurance and retirement benefits that workers can take with them from job to job. Employers could pay into a fund through an app.
• Improve enforcement through the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, taking particular aim at high-violation employers.

"This survey shows that they need more protection and additional ways to access existing workplace benefits," Zundl said.

Mijanos, the undocumented worker from Freehold, said she needed more workplace protections. 

She told the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey that she came to the Garden State 12 years ago from Guatemala and stayed, believing it was safer than her home country.

She described one assignment taking care of an elderly couple.

Mijanos said the environment turned hostile and included sexual harassment. When she complained to their son, he didn't believe her. And she got sick from the stress, leaving after a year and a half.

"I think it's time to stop this sad situation," Mijanos said through an interpreter.

Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy for 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.