Sponsors (116)
Introduced June 12, 2025 by Pramila Jayapal · Last progress June 12, 2025
The bill extends substantial workplace rights, pay, and enforcement to millions of domestic workers and bolsters Medicaid support for home‑based care, but does so at the cost of higher payroll and compliance costs for households, increased federal/state spending, and implementation complexity that could reduce care availability if not properly funded and phased.
About 2+ million domestic workers (many low-income women, immigrants, and racial/ethnic minorities) would gain clear federal labor protections—overtime, minimum‑rate ties to FLSA, paid sick leave, protected breaks, anti‑discrimination coverage, and stronger enforcement tools—raising take‑home pay and workplace rights.
Medicaid beneficiaries (seniors and people with disabilities) would get clearer HCBS eligibility and short‑term federal funding support (FMAP increase) to help preserve access to home‑ and community‑based services delivered by domestic caregivers.
The bill strengthens enforcement, outreach, and information access—authorizing federal rulemaking, a national hotline, plain‑language multilingual notices, a single DOL webpage, inspections/subpoena authority, and public hearings—making it easier for workers to learn about and enforce rights.
Millions of households and small employers (families hiring in‑home help, homeowners, and small agencies) would face higher labor costs—overtime, paid sick leave, rest/meal pay, severance/lodging obligations, payroll taxes and possible benefit requirements—raising the cost of hiring and care.
Higher employer costs and administrative burdens could reduce availability or hours of in‑home care and raise prices for consumers and for state Medicaid programs, risking access for seniors and people with disabilities.
New compliance, paperwork, record‑keeping, notice and scheduling requirements plus broad regulatory authority raise administrative burdens and litigation risk for household employers and small providers (including potential penalties and private lawsuits).
Based on analysis of 20 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal domestic workers' bill of rights with wage, privacy, scheduling, meal/rest, live‑in protections, a standards board, and a temporary Medicaid FMAP boost.
Creates a federal "domestic workers bill of rights" that extends labor protections to people who do home-based care, housekeeping, and in‑home child care workers. It adds overtime protections for live‑in workers, requires meal/rest breaks and privacy protections, protects temporary schedule changes for personal events, mandates a DOL notice of rights and a national hotline, establishes a Domestic Employee Standards Board to advise the Secretary, and provides a temporary Medicaid FMAP increase to help states pay for higher labor and benefits costs. The Secretary of Labor and HHS get rulemaking authority and deadlines for certain notifications and web resources; some workplace protections take effect two years after enactment while FMAP relief lasts 20 quarters (5 years).