Domestic Work: The Hour Counts That Decide What You Are Owed

The definition is wider than the job title

The state’s definition of a domestic worker in a private household covers chauffeurs, nannies, home health aides, nurses, babysitters, au pairs, maids, cooks, housekeepers, laundry workers, butlers, companions and gardeners.

That matters because people rule themselves out on the word. Someone who describes their work as “helping a family” or “taking care of an elderly lady” is squarely inside the category and inside the protections.

Why the workers’ compensation line is the important one

Because it decides who pays for an injury, and the difference is total.

With workers’ compensation, medical treatment for a work injury is provided at no cost to the worker — bills go directly from the employer’s insurer to the provider. No deductible, no copay, no coinsurance.

Without it, the same injury runs through your own coverage or through you.

The claim has its own deadlines and they start immediately: notify the employer within 30 days, in writing if at all possible, and file Form C-3 with the Workers’ Compensation Board within two years. The form does not require a Social Security number, and every worker injured on the job in New York may file regardless of immigration status. The full sequence.

Health insurance is a separate question, and separately answerable

None of the above is health coverage. A household employer is not required to provide it, and most do not.

What fills it in New York:

The Essential Plan. $0 a month at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, no deductible, no enrollment season. A large share of domestic workers in this city sit inside that line. What it covers.

Medicaid, at lower income, also year-round. Child Health Plus for children, reaching far above what parents expect, regardless of the child’s immigration status.

NYC Care, if status is what puts insurance out of reach: no status requirement, no income cutoff for membership. How NYC Care works.

Being paid in cash is not an obstacle to any of it. New York accepts an attestation of income checked against data, and asks for documents only where the two do not match. How income is proven with no pay stubs.

The conversation with the family you work for

Two questions, asked plainly, and both are ordinary rather than confrontational:

“How many hours a week am I working for you, counting time at the house and errands?”

“Do you carry workers’ compensation coverage for me?”

Getting the first answer in writing — a text message is a record — matters because the threshold is the hours, and the hours are what would be disputed later.

The state Department of Labor publishes a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights covering the wider set of protections, including overtime and a day of rest, and it is the right place for the parts of the relationship this page does not cover.

If something goes wrong

For an injury: the sequence above, and free legal services organizations across the city handle these claims at no cost.

For a hospital bill that arrives anyway: New York’s financial assistance law applies regardless — nothing out of pocket at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, no asset test, immigration status may not be considered, applications accepted at any stage. How it works.