SB 686 Health and Safety Standards for Domestic Workers

Domestic workers provide front-line care to California's most vulnerable, like seniors and people with compromised immune systems, yet they often remain without any health and safety protections. 

Domestic workers are often put at severe risk of injury and illness, especially when public health and emergencies and natural disasters strike. One year into the pandemic, domestic workers were three times more likely to have contracted COVID-19 than the general population in California. They took it home to their loved ones and put them at risk.

Our key labor laws such as National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act - have at some point, if not currently, excluded these workers. This exclusion, which is part of the ongoing legacy of slavery, has served to further the false narrative that domestic work is voluntary/unpaid and "non-productive".