California law requires overtime pay for domestic workers

SACRAMENTO, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- California in-home domestic workers will be entitled to overtime pay starting in January under a measure signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

As many as 200,000 nannies, cooks, housekeepers and other domestic workers will qualify for time-and-a-half overtime pay after a 9-hour workday or a 45-hour workweek, state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said.

Brown signed the bill Thursday.

The governor vetoed a more expansive bill last year that would have required rest, meal and sleep breaks as well as overtime pay for household employees, saying it could have caused hardships for families employing in-house attendants for elderly or ill relatives.

Ammiano's measure, limiting the law to overtime pay only, won Brown's approval, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.