Sponsors (18)
Introduced December 9, 2025 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress December 9, 2025
The bill extends significant workplace protections, pay and safety improvements, and enforcement/support structures to millions of domestic and caregiving workers while relying on temporary federal funding and expansive rulemaking—trading higher household and government costs plus administrative and litigation burdens for broader worker protections and more stable home‑based care services.
About 2.2 million domestic workers (including live-in, home care, and household employees) gain explicit workplace protections — overtime, paid sick leave accrual, predictable scheduling rights, privacy limits on monitoring, anti‑retaliation, bans on certain NDAs/noncompetes, and written agreement requirements — improving wages, job clarity, and legal recourse.
Medicaid beneficiaries (seniors and people with disabilities) and states receive clearer HCBS eligibility and a temporary FMAP increase to help preserve and expand home- and community-based services delivered by domestic care workers, reducing the risk that beneficiaries lose services.
Domestic employees get stronger enforcement and worker support: private rights of action, damages/liquidated damages and civil penalties for violations, plus grant-funded outreach, a national hotline, education, mediation, and claims assistance to improve access to remedies.
Households and small employers face materially higher labor and compliance costs (overtime, paid sick time, required written agreements, lodging/severance for live‑in workers, meal/rest pay, recordkeeping and penalties), which could reduce hiring of paid domestic help and raise care costs for families and taxpayers.
States and agencies will face increased administrative burden, audits, and coordination costs to implement new HCBS rules, FMAP changes, and expanded enforcement, straining budgets and staff at the state level.
Ambiguities in defining covered domestic services and expanded enforcement raise litigation risk for employers and some workers (disputes over coverage, good‑faith compliance, and penalties), increasing legal costs and uncertainty.
Based on analysis of 20 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a federal domestic workers bill of rights: expands FLSA coverage (live‑in overtime), privacy, scheduling, breaks, notice, a standards board, hotline, and a temporary Medicaid FMAP boost.
Creates a federal "domestic workers bill of rights" that extends and clarifies labor protections for people who work in private homes (nannies, housekeepers, home health aides, etc.). It removes the overtime exemption for live‑in domestic workers, requires paid meal/rest breaks and limited temporary schedule changes, strengthens privacy and communication protections, requires written notices of rights, establishes a federal Domestic Employee Standards Board and a national hotline, and directs the Department to write implementing rules. The bill also provides a temporary 20‑quarter increase in federal Medicaid matching funds to help states cover services provided by domestic employees and includes funding authorization language.