California: Killing Jobs One at a Time. Happy Labor Day!
Want to make a job go away? Then make it so complicated and regulated that no one can afford to hire someone to do that job and just like magic, that job will go away.
The California Legislature is poised to pass a law giving all sorts of new rights to domestic workers. Guaranteed breaks, detailed pay stubs, workers comp. All of it sounds great, until you get to the part where it is utterly ridiculous and results in either the jobs going away entirely or going completely underground.
Here are some of the problems. They've taken away a minimum hours requirement before your required to treat someone as an employee. This means that if a stay at home mom ends up needing a root canal for two hours on a Tuesday morning, she can't pay her next door neighbor to come watch her child for two whole hours without engaging the services of an accountant to do the proper withholding and provide the detailed pay stub required under the new law.
Now, there are exemptions for family members and those under 18, so make sure you always live next door to your mother! That will be extremely helpful for your marriage. It can be like living in a real life episode of Everybody Loves Raymond! Or, make sure you never need someone to watch your children when school is in session.
In addition, if you leave your precious bundle of joy for more than 2 hours, you have to make sure your babysitter has 15 minute breaks. Ummm, because that's easily possible. Can you imagine trying to find someone to fill these break periods? While your cleaning lady can sit on the couch and read a book for 15 minutes for a break, your babysitter can't just go off duty without someone else there. If your kid didn't need to be watched, you'd just leave him alone, right?
Think of the three million phone calls you'd have to make to get a substitute babysitter for your Friday night out. "Hi! I need a babysitter on Friday night. I need you to come over from 8:00 to 8:15 to relieve my other babysitter, and then you'll have to come back at 10:00 to 10:15. We want to go out for ice cream after the movie ends, so if we're not home by midnight, could you come back at 12:00 to 12:15?"
And what if you have a regular nanny? You've got to find someone to come over multiple times, every day, for 15 minute time periods to give the nanny her legally required break? And, keep in mind, that you'll have to pay your substitute babysitter under the same rules as the regular one, so you'll need your accountant again to calculate her pay. And, not to mention, you watch your neighbor's kids at your neighbor's house, you have to provide your neighbor with your social security number! Yeah!
And if your baby takes a nap, and while she naps, your nanny watches television, does that count as a break? Because it's not like she's doing anything other than being on call in case the baby wakes up or something.
So, if you want to be a nanny, your only practical choice is to do it all under the table. Plenty of nannies already work under the table, and this will drive the others there as well. And this helps household workers how?
If you want to hire a nanny you will have to do so under the table and further break the law by not providing breaks. Which means law abiding citizens cannot hire nannies any more. They will have to use day cares. Let me tell you, that when we hit baby number 2, it was cheaper to pay a nanny $10 an hour then it was to have two kids in day care. If you hit child number 3, most likely a nanny would be cheaper for you too.
And nannies have advantages that daycare centers don't. For instance, your child can get one on one contact, maintain contact with kids in the neighborhood, and (this is very important for working parents) you can arrange for your nanny to still watch the kids even when the kids are sick. Most day cares will not accept a sick child, or will charge you a substantial fee to put your kid in the "sick" room. Because when you're a fevered 2 year old the thing you want most is some strange woman in some strange room watching you, right? No, the reality is someone has to take off work.
Plus, there are people who would far rather be nannies than work in a day care setting. You can negotiate a lot of perks with your employer if you're a nanny--some allow you to bring your own child to work with you, do your own grocery shopping, talk on the phone, go to the park, and even (gasp!) watch television while your young charges are napping. This ain't happening when you're a day care employee.
Now, you can avoid these laws by opening your own in home day care, which again opens a whole host of problems for the would be nanny. First of all, you have to live in the kind of neighborhood that people who want nannies want to leave their children. Forget it if you have roommates, or a spouse that works nights or a dog, or a neighbor with a dog, or a landlord who won't permit it, or no backyard for children to play in.
These rules also apply to people who care for the elderly or disabled as well. While grandma can probably be left alone for 15 minutes while the caregiver takes a break, the caregiver is probably already taking breaks even without this law. And again, does reading a book while Grandma naps meet the requirement of a "break"?
There's no way to fairly enforce this law, so most people will ignore it. Which means that people who believe they are law abiding citizens and paying their employees fairly and paying taxes correctly are still subject to prosecution at any time the district attorney's office decides they don't like you. Want to run for office in the future? Make sure you don't go on any dates with your spouse because your babysitter most likely won't be legal.
The outcome of this legislation is fewer jobs. Thanks California! Happy Labor Day to you too!
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