Published by: Kimberly Alvarenga (CWDC)

The California Domestic Workers Coalition is thrilled to announce that on December 14, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the Access to Paid Sick Leave Ordinance with a veto-proof, unanimous vote. During this past year, domestic workers led numerous lobby visits, coalition-wide strategy meetings, and creative cultural actions to ensure the success of this campaign. This ordinance will make San Francisco one of the first cities in the country in creating an innovative portable benefit system for domestic workers to access Paid Sick Leave, a right all San Francisco-based workers have been entitled to since 2007. The portable benefit system proposed by the ordinance will facilitate the calculation and accrual of paid sick leave for domestic workers, and will mandate domestic employers to contribute towards this earned benefit. Domestic workers will be able to accrue paid sick leave hours from multiple employers through a centralized account that they will access through an app.

We hope that the San Francisco portable benefits system will serve as a model for other cities in the Bay Area and for the rest of the state. Making safety net benefits accessible is not only a matter of equity but also part of our vision for the future of the domestic work industry. This victory would have not been possible without the leadership of our domestic worker members and the support of all our allies!

Please join us in celebrating and spreading the good news on our social media platforms!