Clearly, I am in the wrong line of work.
Can’t stand the sight of blood, so medicine is out; not great with numbers, so hedge fund manager is not an option. However, I do love kids, even ones that aren’t mine, so why am I not raking in the dough?
Because I am not a babysitter in California.
If you thought it was costing you an arm and a leg to fund your monthly date night in the Golden State now, just wait until a new bill passes. You may be a paraplegic before your kids enter high school.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) is making headlines for introducing new legislature, dubbed AB 889, which would require parents to provide workers’ compensation benefits, mandatory meal breaks, and paid vacation time for babysitters and nannies.
Ammiano maintains that the new bill is necessary to protect the rights of domestic workers, who have spent decades as underpaid, overworked employees, and who are often treated poorly by their employers.
I’m having flashbacks to The Help.
This may not sound like how you treat the people who care for your kids, but the way the bill is currently written, you and your babysitter would be affected.
According to California State Senator Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) the bill’s language is too broad:
“Under AB 889, household ‘employers’ (aka ‘parents’) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.”
All that for a night out with your significant other at Olive Garden and maybe a nightcap at Flannigan’s Pub?
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to a new report, babysitter’s in California’s three largest cities average $12-15 an hour to watch a single child.
Forget about Olive Garden; date night with Ronald may be all parents can afford these days.
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