You may be covered if you are injured on the job as a domestic employee.
If you work in someone’s home, you may think that you don’t qualify for workers’ compensation insurance. After all, your employer is not running a business. He or she just hired you to clean their house, take care of their lawn, or watch their kids. But under California law, you may actually be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if you are injured while at work.
Hiring a domestic worker, such as a babysitter, nanny, gardener, or housekeeper, is not unusual in states like California. These relationships can be beneficial for both the employer and the employee. The employer knows that the employee will do a great job, and the employee often has a more flexible job schedule than with traditional employment. However, if that employee is hurt on the job, the question may arise as to who is responsible for the accident.
Consider a situation where a housekeeper falls down the stairs at her employer’s home, breaking her arm. If that happened at any other employer’s place of business, it would automatically be covered by workers’ compensation, because workers’ compensation is a no-fault system of insurance that provides benefits for injured workers regardless of how they were hurt (with a few exceptions, such as if the employee was committing a crime at work). But because the housekeeper is working in a private home, the employer may balk at paying for her injuries. He may claim that the housekeeper was at fault, and that he shouldn’t be required to pay for her clumsiness. What can be done in that situation?
As an initial matter, it should be noted that occasional employees (such as a once-weekly cleaning service) should be automatically covered under a homeowner’s insurance policy. But if an employee is considered a full-time employee by the insurance company or under state law, then the employer must provide workers’ compensation coverage.
Under California law, a full-time domestic or residential employee is defined as follows:
- For inside employees, such as housekeepers or nannies, full-time employment begins when they work 20 hours a week or more.
- For outside employees, such as gardeners, full-time employment begins when they work 10 hours a week or more.
If you have been injured while at work in California as a domestic employee, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if you have worked at least 52 hours in the 90 days prior to the accident and earned at least $100 in wages. A skilled workers’ compensation attorney can help you determine if you meet this criteria and are potentially eligible for workers’ compensation.
The attorneys of PLBH have more than 50 years of experience helping injured workers get the compensation they deserve for their injuries. With offices in Arizona and California, we are well-positioned to help a broad range of workers get the help that they need. Contact us today at (800) 435-7542 or info@plblaw.com to learn more about how we can help you.