The General Assembly passed a bill that would require employers to pay domestic workers the state’s minimum wage, according to a news release Thursday.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dawn Euer and state Rep. Leonela Felix, would classify domestic workers as employees and require them to be paid the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Domestic workers are currently exempt from the state’s minimum wage law because they are not considered employees.
“There’s no reason some workers shouldn’t have minimum wage protections just because they work in households,” said Euer, D-Newport/Jamestown, in a statement. “This bill extends a very basic protection to some of our most essential workers while removing one of the most puzzling statutes in Rhode Island law.”
Felix, D-Pawtucket, said domestic workers are employees just like any other and that the exemption is disproportionally impacting women and people of color.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 90% of domestic workers are women and more than half of them are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American and Pacific Islander, according to the news release.
The bill now passes to the governor’s desk for his consideration.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
