California The Nanny State
Another Ridiculous Law
The laws in this once great nation are getting more ridiculous by the minute. We have been in a recession, well more of a depression, for a number of years now. Instead of local, State, and Federal government officials getting together to work out these issues. They are getting together to either argue with one another, point fingers at each other, or write and try to pass new laws that hinder the already beaten down American citizen.
California's new Assembly Bill 889, is another one of these new ridiculous laws that is trying to pass. It has already cleared the Assembly and is expected to receive overwhelming support from Senate Democrats, who control both houses of the California legislature.
Under this typical Americans would become legally responsible for paying workers’ compensation benefits, meal breaks, and paid vacation time for all “domestic employees”. These "domestic employee's" would include babysitters, nannies, gardeners, housekeepers, etc...
Most households have to have both parents working to be able to just "stay afloat" these days. This makes it very hard when parents have small children because of the high costs associated with day care. If this new law gets passed parents will not have to pay for one babysitter they will have to pay for two. Parents will have to provide substitute caregivers every 2 hours to cover a 15 minute break and a 30 minute meal breaks. On top of that they will have to pay for any overtime worked, provide a line-item pay stub showing gross and net wages earned, total hours worked, deductions ,and both employer and employee Social Security numbers.
If you do not abide by these new policies, you will be liable for penalties, lots of penalties. Including attorneys’ fees, legal expenses, and back pay up to a maximum of $4,000.
Ridiculous laws like these are not helping Americans, if anything it is hindering them. What will these laws bring? Will some people be leaving their elderly relatives and possibly their children alone at home while they go to work? What do you think of this law?
Comments
I agree with most of what you have said here. I live in California and was born and raised here was well. I am not a fan of AB889. One thing that was not brought up in this hub is the darker side of underground businesses. We receive a great number of immigrants each year. Many have no skills and very poor language. California has a huge underground business system which pays no taxes at all. Domestic servants and nanny's partially fall into that category.
- AUTHOR
Terri: we are getting away from the class system. Soon we will only have two classes, the uber rich and the dirt poor.
WTF??? People who provide private babysitting services..not in a daycare setting...are basically self-employed. They enter into a contractual agreement with the client (parent) to provide specific services for a specific daily, weekly, or monthly amount. Do the brainiacs proposing this latest control mechanism also offer the clients (parents) to write off their "business" expenses associated with being an employer? After all, every business owner is permitted to write off expenses incurred in the pursuit of making a taxable profit income. Seems to me that working parents are earning taxable profits, therefore, they should be able to depreciate the building provided for the work environment (their homes), all the utilities and taxes associated with maintaining the work site, all supplies necessary for employees to perform their duties, etc...
This is just one more step designed to eliminate the freedoms of the working classes. I'm sure the domestic employees will view it as a "just" law, but that's because they will fail to see it's just another example of government interfering with their rights to self determine what's best for them.
- AUTHOR
It is a sad state of affairs. Thanks for stopping by Will
It's like minimum wage laws...people can no longer afford to hire, so they have to let people go. Summer jobs are now hard for kids to find because of minimum wage laws.
This new law means even more people will now be out of work.
Brilliant.
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