For 18 years, Flor Montenegro cared for the children of well-off families in Fairfield County as a nanny.
鈥淚 have always worked blindly trusting [my] employers,鈥� Montenegro said in Spanish.
For years, promised raises never arrived. She said she was also not reimbursed for expenses like food and the gas used to take the children under her supervision to their after-school activities.
鈥淭he initial verbal agreement was $12 an hour wage, but it was closer to $10,鈥� she said.
Montenegro is one of the more than in the state who are now supported that grants state funding to prevent violations of workers鈥� rights through education.
鈥淚 never saw it as exploitation,鈥� Montenegro said. 鈥淚t was not until a meeting I attended in 2019 that I realized I shared similar struggles with other women. Some that we kept to ourselves out of fear, or out of shame or for fear of retaliation due to immigration statuses.鈥�
Montenegro said if she had known she had rights, she would鈥檝e said something.
Instead, she quit.
鈥淭his is what we call a centuries-long struggle,鈥� said James Bhandary-Alexander, legal director of the Medical Legal Partnership at the Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy.
Bhandary-Alexander said domestic workers have always dovetailed with a struggle for the right to minimum wage, which was excluded from the .
And while in the 1970s, , some were still excluded through technicalities.
Currently, he said a domestic worker in .
鈥淭he problem is workers don't know their rights, or they don't feel that they have the power to actually enforce those rights,鈥� Bhandary-Alexander said.
State laws protect domestic workers
In the last 10 years, the 海角换妻 legislature has passed several laws to protect the labor rights of domestic workers.
In 2015, addressed the exclusion of domestic workers from labor protections such as being paid minimum wage, sick days or overtime.
But when the bill was signed, it only provided domestic workers the ability to bring sexual harassment or discrimination complaints against their employer, leaving out the rest.
Then, in 2016, 海角换妻 became one of the nine states to adopt a
This bill broadened the definition of an employee under state law, scratching away the description of who could be considered an employee, which excluded individuals employed in the domestic service of any person.
But there was a loophole.
鈥淟et鈥檚 say you work for a wealthy Greenwich family full time, but you're the only domestic worker there. You鈥檙e not gonna get those protections,鈥� Bhandary-Alexander said.
鈥淲hereas if you work for the same family and they have a total of three domestic workers 鈥� which actually does happen in Greenwich 鈥� then you would be protected.鈥�
To address this education gap among domestic workers, .
This law created a state fund of $200,000 to assist qualified organizations in fulfilling educational responsibilities with domestic workers.
Among them is the 海角换妻 Worker Center, where Flor Montenegro first learned about her own labor protections as a nanny.
Where workers learn their rights
At the in Bridgeport, Montenegro said she lost the fear of speaking up. She learned that her rights were protected. And now she helps other workers learn about newer laws that protect domestic workers like her as a volunteer at the center.
鈥淚鈥檝e been able to help other women who have also experienced abuse and explain the laws that protect us and our labor,鈥� she said.
Nelli Jara, the center鈥檚 executive director and a former domestic worker, said a majority of the workers the organization helps are Spanish-speaking migrants.
Over 95% of the workers they train identify as Hispanic women from Bridgeport, Stratford and Trumbull, among other towns.
That reflects national trends. According to the, the vast majority of domestic workers are women, and just over half are Black, Hispanic or Asian American/Pacific Islander women.
鈥淐urrently, we have over 1,200 members that have been registered, a number that grew during the pandemic,鈥� Jara said.
Jara said workers feel more comfortable working with the center to contact their employers about wages that weren鈥檛 paid, and that is one of their main goals. While many cases involving wage theft are solved through mediation, Jara said they鈥檝e filed over 17 wage theft complaints with the Department of Labor this year alone. The pending cases add up to over $20,000 in potentially owed wages.
Volunteers also hold sessions to inform workers that the new state law also requires their employers to aimed at preventing wage theft. The written agreement should include pay rate and scheduling 鈥� something never before required of domestic employers.
With these efforts, the 海角换妻 Worker Center has become the connection for workers and their protections.
鈥淲hen there is institutional, personal and organizational support at the same time, it鈥檚 [like] a triangle that complements everything that can be done in favor of a worker,鈥� Jara said.
