California Dems Move to Regulate Babysitting Out of Existence

by Dave Blount | September 2, 2011 1:48 pm

The folks at The Onion may be moonbats, but they come up with some great parody news stories, like the one about the authoritarian do-gooders who run California pushing through a demented law that would effectively outlaw babysitting.

Hold on — this is from The Union[1], not The Onion[2]. The parody is actually real[3]:

How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for … babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco) will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies, housekeepers and caregivers.

Not a single Republican supports this lunatic bill. None needs to. It is sailing through the Dem-controlled legislature. Governor Moonbeam had better sharpen up a crayon; it will soon be ready for his signature.

Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

Failure to abide by any of these provisions may result in a legal cause of action against the employer including cumulative penalties, attorneys’ fees, legal costs and expenses associated with hiring expert witnesses, an unprecedented measure of legal recourse provided no other class of workers.

The effect of the bill — as with virtually all Democrat legislation — will be to drive up unemployment, this time by discouraging people from hiring housekeepers, nannies, and babysitters. These are hardly the corporate jet types Comrade Obama demonizes when he’s not playing golf with them on Martha’s Vineyard. It is the poor struggling to work their way up who take it in the neck from our liberal rulers.

On a tip from Lyle. Cross-posted at Moonbattery[5].