Jews for Racial and Economic Justice has worked with Domestic Workers United since 2002 to obtain basic worker rights for domestic workers through their Shalom Bayit campaign. Joining DWU's marches and other actions, they have worked to raise awareness and to change policy in New York City and State. The four testimonies included below by Donna Schneiderman and her daughter, Gayle Kirshenbaum and Judith Trachtenberg, all employers of domestic workers, were read during vigils and other actions over the past few years.

Donna Schneiderman

Donna Schneiderman is one of the co-chairs of JFREJ's Shalom Bayit Campaign. She gave this speech at press conferences throughout the domestic workers' justice campaign in 2009.

My name is Donna Schneiderman and I'm a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, or JFREJ. I am an employer in JFREJ's Employers for Justice Network, a group of 100 employers of domestic workers who have improved their employment practices and taken action in support of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. I'm here in Albany today lobbying with Domestic Workers for the Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights to show my commitment to fair employment practices. I believe that passage of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights will help bring respect to an industry where respect is long overdue.

Over 10 years ago, through a recommendation of a colleague and good friend, I had the opportunity to hire a loving, experienced and dedicated caregiver to watch my six-month-old daughter three days a week while I worked part-time. I am fortunate and grateful that the same caregiver is still looking after my now 11-year-old and her eight-year-old sister on the days I am working. Over the 10-plus years of this solid mutually-respectful relationship, my husband and I believe we have been fair in how we've paid our domestic worker, how we've determined days off, vacation pay and year-end bonuses, etc. Yet even after all these years, I am not entirely sure that what we deem to be fair is in fact fair. How can we be sure without standards?

When I was a new mom, before the days of online social networking, we relied on the park bench chatter to determine the "going rate" for babysitters—according to the more-experienced "experts" (moms with toddlers), the rate depended on the number of weekly hours, multiple kids, housework involved, years of experience, all sorts of factors. I found most of my fellow-new-moms were reluctant to discuss what they were paying for fear of seeming cheap on one end; and on the other end, concerned that others would say they were driving up the wages. Here we were, sleep-deprived and anxious new moms—clueless in many ways as to what it takes to be a caregiver—chatting about what seemed fair or not.

These days, the park bench has moved to the Internet, with its numerous online groups for new moms. One of the most common questions posted at these forums is, "How much should I pay my babysitter?," followed by, "How much vacation time is expected for my nanny?," or similar versions of these questions. New moms are asking about bonus pay, days off, sick time and yes, even about healthcare coverage. From my experiences and these online discussions, it's clear that many employers want to treat their domestic workers fairly, but don't know exactly how. A Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights would help set standards and define guidelines for everyone.

There is another point that I have been trying to crystallize since I started getting involved with the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. I have noted an absence in voices from the caregivers on the park bench and online at the Internet forums. In fact, when I've tried to discuss with our caregiver whether or not the wages my husband and I determined to be fair are indeed fair, even after a long respectful relationship, I still sense her discomfort in being frank with me. And as a result, I am truly not sure if I am being fair to her. Discussing wages is a difficult conversation for any employee to have with an employer. It is far more difficult for those who have worked in a field where there is so much employer-discretion involved and where domestic work gets very little respect. As a result, domestic workers often internalize this powerlessness and become less able to advocate for themselves in their workplaces. Organizing with their fellow domestic workers, and winning the establishment of standards in the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, will greatly improve their ability to speak up for what is fair. And as a result, their voices will be included on the park benches and chat groups.

I believe that we teach our children how to respect others by, in fact, respecting others. The standards that would result from a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights would help create a foundation of respect in our homes, which in turn benefits our children. With clearly defined standards in place, there is a baseline of understanding between employer and employee on difficult-to-discuss topics such as wages and days off. As a result of clearer and more respectful communication, the relationship is nurtured and respect is strengthened. Our children ultimately benefit the most when they observe a congenial and trusting relationship between parents and caregiver. They are given the sense that their parents value the care being provided to them, and they learn that all work and all people deserve respect. Standards defined by the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights will help us have honest and direct conversations with our domestic workers, allowing us to demonstrate respect in our homes.

Most of all, I am here speaking out on the need for a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights because domestic work is the work that makes other work possible. Our domestic worker makes it possible for me to work with peace of mind and an easy heart. This is something only a parent who has left a child in someone else's care can understand. When you trust that while you are at work your child will be cared for in a loving way, that decisions will be made for her well-being with good judgment, and that she will be played with, read to, sung to and spoken to in a kind manner—then and only then are you able to focus on your work. I have benefited from this level of professional childcare. It is in honor and appreciation of all that my caregiver has given my family over these past 10 years that I am here. And I know there are thousands of other caregivers out there in New York who deserve the same honor and appreciation. I see them everyday and so does everyone here. These are hard-working, dedicated individuals who deserve the right to be respected like any other professional deserves.

On behalf of Employers for Justice; Jews for Racial and Economic Justice; and in solidarity with Domestic Workers United, I am here to tell the New York State legislature that now is the time to pass a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights.

Thank you.

Donna Schneiderman's daughter gave the following testimony for the Children's Vigil in 2008, an event bringing together children of domestic workers and the children domestic workers take care of, organized to highlight the issue as a family issue.

[I have been cared for by a] babysitter for ten years—from the time I was six months old! [My babysitter] has helped me with my homework and one project she helped me with I got an A+ for! She has taught me how to fold laundry and she has helped me embroider and paint. When I was a toddler she played the "Beach Game" with me—a silly game I invented when I was little.

My parents respect [my babysitter] and treat her like she's part of our family. Many times she and my mom have long conversations before she leaves. Both my parents rely on [my babysitter] so that they can go to work knowing that my sister and I are being taken care of. The babysitting profession is important because it helps make other jobs happen.

I support domestic workers' rights because I want babysitters like [mine] to have paid sick days and vacation time so that they can take care of themselves when they're sick and spend time with family when they want to.

I'm here speaking about [my babysitter] because I don't think it's fair that some babysitters aren't treated fairly. I think it's important for kids to know about domestic workers' rights because a lot of the kids I know have babysitters and they should be aware of how some babysitters are being treated.

Gayle Kirshenbaum

Gayle Kirshenbaum is a long-time member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice's Employers for Justice Network, a former board member of JFREJ, and a leader in the social justice working group, Kolot Chayeinu, the first synagogue to take on the domestic workers' justice campaign as a congregation. She gave this speech at several press conferences in 2009.

My name is Gayle Kirshenbaum and I'm a member of the New York City-based Employers for Justice Network, a project of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. We are current and former employers of nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers of the ill and elderly who have come to Albany to say now is the moment for lawmakers to recognize this industry by passing the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. We are here to ask legislators to recognize the hidden workforce that holds together our households—and contributes mightily to our state's economy—everyday. We are here to ask for clear standards for the many families who want to be good employers but do not know what that looks like. What they do know is that they want their loved ones cared for with love; what they need to learn is how to care for the caregivers.

Our current laws fail to see domestic workers as deserving of basic labor standards or even the right to form a union. In my neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in other upper-income communities in our city and state, domestic employers take advantage of their workers' statutory neglect every day. Among many families in my community, there is widespread resignation—or outright indifference—to balancing the issues of work and family on the backs of a vulnerable immigrant class.

Many domestic employers simply fail to recognize that their homes are workplaces, resulting in ill-defined or changing job descriptions and minimal benefits. Workers are suddenly asked to clean the house and do laundry when they were originally hired only for child care; they're expected to work hours of overtime with little notice and no extra pay; they're asked to postpone urgent medical appointments because the time was inconvenient for the employer; they're never considered for a raise or severance after multiple years on the job.

The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights would serve as a wake up call to many of these employers, establishing long overdue standards for workers who make it possible for the rest of New York to go to work every day. State standards would create the conditions for better communication, accountability, and mutual respect between domestic employers and employees. State standards would create the conditions for justice in our homes.

I hope to one day tell my adult son about Debbie, the domestic worker who cared for him when he was a baby. Debbie, the woman from Jamaica who succeeded in getting him to take a nap, who carried his stroller up four flights of stairs, who was the first to make him laugh from his belly, who labored in our small apartment for a paycheck to take home to her own children and to contribute to her son's college education, harboring the same aspirations for her life and her children as those held by the first generation of his family who came from Eastern Europe to the U.S.

I hope to one day tell him that the value of Debbie's work to our family was, at long last, honored by New York State in the form of a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights.

Judith Trachtenberg

Judith Trachtenberg is an employer of a part-time housecleaner. She is a member of JFREJ's Employers for Justice Network, and also a leader in Congregation B'nai Jeshurun's Domestic Workers' Justice "chevra," or working group. This testimonial was read at the New York State Assembly Labor Committee Hearing on the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights.

Good morning. My name is Judith Trachtenberg. My partner and I employ a housecleaner four hours every other week. Not a lot of time, really, but still enough to make this issue of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights become central to my thinking. It addresses what is fair and proper and the rights and benefits all employees should have.

I'd like to tell you about my housecleaner, Nubia. Nubia has been in our employ for about 25 years and there is a group of friends—four other families—who also employ her, one for an even longer period than my family. She attended my mother's funeral many years ago and she recently left me three quarters for my United States quarter collection saying she noticed that I was still missing those three states. So how do I define this relationship? It is clearly hard for me—employee, friend, worker? I have learned that when the relationship gets blurred—and after 25 years that is inevitable—it can prevent a working balance that gives employees the rights they deserve.

So that's why I am here; because it has been difficult to give a name to a relationship like what I am describing. Thinking about Nubia as our "employee" is new for me. I was never clear what to think of our relationship, or how to talk about it, until I became a member of JFREJ, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. JFREJ is a membership-based organization that engages Jews to pursue and win racial and economic justice in partnership with Jewish and allied people of color, low-income, and immigrant communities in New York City. JFREJ's Employers for Justice Network is a growing group, currently 100 strong, of employers of domestic workers who have improved their employment practices and spoken out for the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. I am one of the network's newest members. Through this community, I have had the opportunity to learn about and explore some central issues in this employer-employee connection.

The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights seems to me to be critical, especially in the current moment, when the economy is not good and in such a state of flux. We have paid Nubia reasonably well—at least as compared to others with whom I have talked—but we missed some points. We never gave regular yearly raises. I suspect we were uncomfortable being employers. Somehow labeling the relationship as friendship seemed easier, but it clearly did not offer Nubia all the rights she should have had. What we used to do was to give her a raise just before it seemed as if she might ask for one. We were alleviating our guilt but not being consistent or dependable for her. And how much to give? Only recently did we begin to think about a percentage of her salary, a percentage based on consumer price index, and to initiate a conversation about the subject. It never before occurred to my partner and I, employees who, with our work outside the home, can trust in receiving regular salary increases.

Right now, benefits and rights, both tangible and relational, are hit or miss in this huge industry. What happens with vacation pay or sick leave? What about the raises I spoke about earlier? We, as employers, have only the practices of friends, neighbors, and co-workers to use as a model, and we only have access to that if we are smart enough to ask questions and seek advice. If we don't, the inconsistency and sometimes awful treatment of domestic workers is left to chance, random efforts, and sometimes just down right bad practice. Standardized regulations will lessen the burden on employers to determine what is appropriate and fair. We rely on domestic workers, and we need standards to guide us, whether we are or are not necessarily conscientious about treating the people who work in our homes with respect.

Thank you for this opportunity.