You take care of their family. The law says they have to pay you properly.

YOUR RIGHT 01

Minimum wage for every hour

What it looks like when it goes wrong

• A flat $600 or $700 a week for 50 or 60 hours of work
• Being told that room and board “covers” most of your pay
• Hours that start before the parents leave and end after they get home, but pay that counts only the middle
• A “trial period” or “training week” paid at a lower rate or not at all

What the law says

Every hour you work must be paid at least the minimum wage: $17.00 in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, and $16.00 elsewhere in the state, as of January 1, 2026. The rate is set by New York Labor Law and the wage order that covers domestic workers. It applies whether you are paid in cash, by check or by app, and whatever your immigration status.

A live-in employer may count meals and lodging toward the wage only up to the small fixed amounts the wage order allows, and only if you actually receive them. A family cannot decide on its own that a room is worth half your pay.

Waiting time counts. If you must stay in the home while the children sleep, or wait for a parent who is late, those hours are work.

What to save

Texts about your schedule, photos of cash envelopes, a calendar of your days, and anything that shows what hours you actually kept. Your own notes and testimony can prove your hours when the employer kept no records.

YOUR RIGHT 02

Overtime after 40 hours, or 44 if you live in

What it looks like when it goes wrong

• A weekly “salary” for a 55 or 60-hour week with nothing extra
• The same hourly rate for hour 50 as for hour 10
• Overnights or weekends paid as a flat “bonus” instead of overtime
• Two families, or two parents, splitting one nanny’s hours so neither pays overtime

What the law says

New York requires time and a half for every hour over 40 in a week for a domestic worker who does not live in the home, and over 44 for one who does. Federal law adds an overtime right for live-out household workers and a minimum wage right for live-in workers.

A flat weekly amount does not remove the right. The law works out your regular rate from that amount and the hours you actually worked, and the extra half is still owed for every overtime hour. Calling the pay a salary changes nothing for a domestic worker.

Overtime is counted by the workweek, not the pay period. A 60-hour week followed by a 20-hour week still contains 20 hours of overtime.

The live-in line

You live in if the employer’s home is your residence, not if you occasionally sleep over. A nanny who stays three nights a week and goes home the rest is usually a live-out worker with overtime after 40 hours.

YOUR RIGHT 03

One day of rest every week

What the law says

The Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights added household workers to New York’s day-of-rest law. You are entitled to at least 24 consecutive hours off in every calendar week. The employer should try to give you the day you use for worship if you ask.

You can agree to work on your rest day, but every hour of that day must be paid at one and a half times your regular rate, whether or not you have reached 40 hours.

Common ways it is broken

• Seven days a week “just while the parents travel” at straight pay
• A rest day that is really an on-call day, with the phone expected to be answered
• Being asked to “make up” the rest day later instead of being paid for it

YOUR RIGHT 04

Three paid days off after a year

What the law says

Once you have worked for the same employer for a year, New York law gives you three paid days of rest every year. The days are paid at your regular rate. They are in addition to the weekly day of rest and to any sick leave the city or state requires.

The employer cannot cancel the days, refuse to pay them, or count sick days toward them. If you leave, unpaid rest days you had earned are part of the wages you can claim.

Good to know

Many families also promise two weeks of vacation or paid holidays. Once promised, those are wages too, and New York law lets you recover them when they are not paid.

YOUR RIGHT 05

A written pay notice and a pay statement

What you should have received

• At hire: a written notice of your regular rate, your overtime rate, how you are paid (hourly, weekly), the regular payday, and the employer’s name, address and phone number
• In English and, where the State publishes a template, in your primary language, signed by you with a copy kept by you
• With every payment: a statement showing the dates covered, the hours worked, the rates, gross pay, every deduction and net pay

What it is worth

Under the Wage Theft Prevention Act an employer that never gave the hire notice owes up to $5,000 in fixed damages, and one that failed to give pay statements owes up to another $5,000. Those amounts are separate from the unpaid wages themselves.

Missing paperwork also helps prove the wage claim. When the employer kept no records, the law lets your credible testimony and reasonable estimates carry the hours.

Cash pay

Being paid in cash does not excuse the notice or the statements. Many household employers skip them entirely, which is why domestic worker cases often include these damages.

YOUR RIGHT 06

No unlawful deductions

Deductions the law does not allow

• A broken dish, a stained rug, a lost stroller or a damaged phone
• Arriving late or leaving early, beyond not paying for time you did not work
• “Training,” “agency fees,” or the cost of a background check
• Groceries or household items you paid for and were never repaid

What the law says

New York Labor Law section 193 allows only two kinds of deductions: those required by law, such as taxes, and a short list you authorize in writing for your own benefit, such as insurance premiums or a transit card. An employer cannot make you “agree” to pay for losses or damage. Money taken outside those rules is unpaid wages, with liquidated damages on top.

Refusing to pay a final check until you return a key or a uniform is also an unlawful deduction.

YOUR RIGHT 07

Protection from harassment

What the law says

Since 2010 the Human Rights Law has protected domestic workers from harassment based on sex, race, national origin, religion and other protected traits, and since 2019 it covers every employer in the state regardless of size. A nanny or a home aide harassed by a member of the household has a claim.

Harassment does not have to be “severe or pervasive” under New York law. Conduct that treats you worse because of who you are is enough, unless it amounts to no more than petty slights.

How it fits a wage case

Harassment and wage claims often travel together. The employer who pays in cash and skips the paperwork is often the one who thinks the rules do not reach inside the home. We look at both when we review your facts.

YOUR RIGHT 08

Paid safe and sick leave in New York City

What the law says

New York State’s sick leave law and New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act both cover domestic workers. Leave accrues at one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year for most household employers. Whether the leave is paid or unpaid can depend on the size and income of the employer; for a family employing one nanny, that question deserves a careful look, so ask us.

Safe leave covers time needed because of domestic violence, stalking or trafficking. Sick leave covers your own illness or care for a family member. Since February 22, 2026 the City also requires 32 hours of unpaid protected time off each year that the employer cannot punish you for taking.

Retaliation

Firing or cutting the hours of a domestic worker for using leave is illegal under both laws, and the City agency can order back pay and penalties.

YOUR RIGHT 09

No retaliation for asking about pay

What the law says

New York Labor Law section 215 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act both forbid punishing a worker for complaining about pay, whether the complaint goes to the employer, a lawyer, the Department of Labor or a court. Threats about immigration status are retaliation too.

A worker who is retaliated against can recover lost wages, liquidated damages of up to $20,000 under New York law, reinstatement in some cases, and attorney’s fees.

If you still work for the family

Tell us before you raise the issue with them. The timing of a complaint, what is said and how it is documented can decide a retaliation case later. A lawyer’s letter often gets pay corrected without anyone losing a job.