Opinion/Classifieds/A&E
Domestics: Taking Care of Those Who Take Care of Us
A
i-Jen Poo, a powerful and
passionate advocate for the
rights of domestic work-
ers, leads the National Domestic
Workers Alliance. Who are these
folks? They are the private house-
hold workers (maids) who
propped up inept women in the
movie, The Help. They are the
home health aides who take care
of our elders when they are ill or
disabled, bringing them meals,
bathing them, and accompanying
them to medical appointments.
They are the nannies that care for
children when parents are work-
ing. In some ways, they are a
backbone of our economy, and yet
they often have neither voice nor
money.
I was struck by the situation of
domestic workers when I heard
Ai-Jen at the National
Council for Research on
Women’s annual con-
ference. While some of
us focus mostly on race,
she is more likely to
focus on class and the
many ways that public
policy is made from an
extremely privileged
perspective.
The
women who stitch together a liv-
ing by working two and three
domestic jobs certainly don’t have
the time to put their situation in
context with public policy. And
those who make public policy
have only limited exposure to
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
those who have to live it. Ai-Jen
and the National Domestic Work-
ers Alliance bridge that gap.
The organization started in
2007, and now has representation
in more than 20 states. In New
York, NDWA was instrumental in
the passage of the Domestic Work-
ers Bill of Rights that went into
effect in November 2010. It
requires that people who work in
other people’s homes for 40 hours
assume that some of these bene-
fits are already written into law,
and in some ways they are. But
domestic workers are more likely
to be treated as casual workers
than as professionals, and if they
are working full-
time, they must be
treated as profes-
sionals.
Listening to Ai-Jen
Poo was like a blast
from the past for
me. My early aca-
demic work focused
on private household
workers. Although the Minimum
Wage Act was passed during the
Depression, private household
workers and farm workers were
excluded from the legislation until
1974. Even then, the law had so
many loopholes that few
adhered to it. At the same
time, failure to abide by
the law has tanked many
a nominee for a federal
appointment. Judge Kim-
ball Wood comes to mind
as a capable jurist who
was snagged by her fail-
ure to take Social Securi-
ty taxes out of the wages
of her full-time housekeeper.
Ai-Jen’s presentation reminded
me how little has changed for pri-
vate household workers. There
are employers who deduct from
low wages if there is breakage in
their homes. There are others that
Those who oppose the bill
talk about their free market
rights, but have blinders on
when it comes to the rights of
others
a week or more (except for rela-
tives and casual employees such
as babysitters) must be paid the
minimum wage, must receive
overtime pay, vacation time,
workers’ compensation and dis-
ability benefits.
One might
may deduct for meals. Without
intervention, the majority of 2.5
million workers take care of our
most precious assets, our children
and our parents, without being
paid fairly. They cook our food,
workers, it is also women who are
the majority of those who hire, and
often exploit, them.
It is amazing how stuck the fem-
inist movement has become
around issues of women on the
bottom. Twenty years
ago there were passion-
ate
debates
about
housework pass along
and the many ways that
the women’s movement
could be mutually sup-
portive along class
lines. Now, though a
passionate woman is
fighting for domestic workers, she
is not often joined by those who
have greater voice, more power,
and the ability to make a differ-
ence.
While domestic workers today
are less likely to be African Amer-
ican than Latino, we in the African
American community need to
remember that the workplace has
long been oppressive to those at
the bottom. In speaking up for
domestic workers, we speak up for
our mothers and grandmothers,
but also for ourselves, no matter
what our economic status.
Those who make public policy
have only limited exposure to
those who have to live it
and who wants someone who feels
that they are being paid unfairly to
cook their food? After all, even
the private household workers in
the pre-civil rights South weren’t
always benign.
In California, a piece of legisla-
tion that is similar to the New York
bill is being considered. Indeed,
Assembly Bill 889 passed the
lower house of the California State
legislature, but the California
State Senate is dragging its heels.
Indeed, some have so distorted the
bill that they describe it as “the
babysitter law,” even though those
who do not work full time are
specifically excluded from the leg-
islation. Those who oppose the
bill talk about their free market
rights, but have blinders on when
it comes to the rights of others.
Unfortunately, while women are
the majority of private household
Julianne Malveaux is a Wash-
ington, D.C.-based economist and
writer. She is President Emerita of
Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.
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June 27, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3