Mistreated Immigrant Nannies
Some immigrant Nannies feel disrespected and abused with no where to turn.
On a cold winter night several years ago Michelle Williams, a nanny in Westchester, N.Y., descended the stairs of her employer’s house into her chilly bedroom in the basement. She turned down the covers of her bed to find a big, black, hairy spider staring at her and screamed, disturbing her employer.
“You probably put that thing in your bed when you made it this morning,” the employer told Williams when she complained of the sub-par basement conditions. Shortly after, Williams was fired, forced to search for a new home and a new job.
“Now, why would I put a big, hairy spider in my own bed?” asked Williams years later, sitting on a bench in Madison Square park, as she rocked her recent employer’s six-month-old child in her stroller.
“Nannies are a hardworking people who are mistreated,” said Williams, 40.
Williams, originally from St. Lucia but now a U.S. citizen, is a disgruntled member of a large workforce of more than 200,000 primarily female and undocumented domestic workers in New York City, according to Domestic Workers United, a group committed to achieving fair labor laws for all private home workers. While nannies’ relationships with employers sometimes spawn lifelong friendships some nannies report that they are mistreated and unhappy in their professions. Lack of education, language skills, and citizenship often cause nannies to accept less pay than they feel they deserve and can lead to mistreatment.
“Employers expect you to work all day, cook, clean and pick up their dirty underwear too,” Williams said. “And they don’t pay you for it.” At one child-care job, Williams was fired for failing to sufficiently remove a rust stain from the bathtub.
More extreme mistreatment is cited on the Domestic Workers United webpage where nannies give personal accounts of horror at work including sleeping in unheated basements on the floor, confiscated passports and rationed food.
“I have a green card so I don’t deal with any of that crap,” said Theresa, a self-described childcare giver from Grenada. She said that undocumented nannies may feel scared about being caught and take whatever they can get.
Isabelle, 25, is an undocumented immigrant nanny who worked for three years before she reached her current rate of $15 an hour. She came to New York from Poland on a sponsored visa five years ago that has now expired.
“I didn’t know about working when I first started to be a nanny,” she said. “I worked for a woman who was a stupid, crazy, and mean person – and cheap,” she said.
Isabelle said this employer wouldn’t let her eat on the job, reimburse her when she had to take kids in a cab without a receipt and only eventually gave compensation for overtime.
Nannies who are treated justly manage to get respect, vacations, and pay from their employers. Some are granted sick days and maternity leave, but health benefits for any in-home care providers is very rare.
Wendy Cox has been a nanny for 10 years and has never been provided with health benefits but has had positive experiences. She makes over $700 for a 60 hour work week and is compensated for her daily subway rides from the Bronx to Chelsea with a monthly metro card. Weathered nannies like Cox know how to negotiate a verbal contract before going to work with new employers.
“I just make sure to find someone that is willing to pay me what I think I am worth,” said Cox.
Nannies typically work 10 to 12 hour days and get paid anywhere from $500 to $1000 a week to work in potentially highly stressful conditions: chasing kids, bending over and dealing with illness and misbehavior, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“I love kids and love taking care of them. The parents need to pay more though and respect what we do,” said nanny Careille Dumar, 28, from Barbados.
With education and citizenship nannies would probably get to do the work they love at a child day-care center and reap the benefits of employment in the public sector.
“It’s hard for nannies to get good jobs at day-care centers because they don’t have the language, experience or education needed,” said Jill Paperman, the director of Pre-School America in Chelsea. “Nannies work much longer days and have a lot more responsibilities than my teachers.”
Starting pay for an employee at a child-care center is comparable to nannies’ rates but centers like Pre-School America tend to provide full health benefits after three months of employment plus a guaranteed 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. work day, sick days, vacation, compensation for overtime and no one expects them to pick up dirty underwear.
“In Poland it is hard to find a job. Plus, I don’t have money for education so what do I do?” said Isabella. “I wish to be in Poland though. It is my country,” she said.
Nannies say they stay in New York because there is little economic opportunity in their homelands or because they have American husbands and children. But, even without hairy spiders in her bed or pay for overtime Williams, like Isabelle, wishes she was home.
“I miss the ocean, the weather and the white, sandy beach,” said Williams. “I just tell myself that I am going back home any day now.”
Domestic Workers United submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006 stating that the laws in place to protect nannies are largely un-enforced or nannies are not protected under laws such as the right to organize or even to earn minimum wage. DWU is working to pass a bill of rights that would grant nannies these protections and help curb mistreatment of all in-home workers.