California Wage Order 15 Amended to Include Overtime Pay for Personal Attendants

California Wage Order 15

As part of California’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights (DWBR) legislation, Wage Order 15, which had previously exempted personal attendants from overtime pay, was amended to remove this exemption and now requires personal attendants be paid overtime compensation at one and one-half times the employees’ regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 9 hours per day or 45 hours per week.

The DWBR defines “personal attendant” as:

Any person employed by a private householder or by any third-party employer recognized in the health care industry to work in a private household, to supervise, feed, or dress a child, or a person who by reason of advanced age, physical disability, or mental deficiency needs supervision. The status of personal attendant shall apply when no significant amount of work other than the foregoing is required. For purposes of this subdivision, “no significant amount of work” means work other than the foregoing did not exceed 20 percent of the total weekly hours worked.

According to the DWBR, personal attendants paid by State or county programs such as In-Home Supportive Services are not entitled to overtime compensation, or if a “parent, grandparent, spouse, sibling, child, or legally adopted child of the domestic work employer” is the person providing services.

For more information on how GTM keeps families compliant with household employment laws, contact us at (800) 929-9213.