Domestic Workers
The Domestic Workers Ordinance gives domestic workers the right to minimum wage protections, meal periods, and paid rest breaks. Live-in domestic workers have rights to time off from work. Under City law, domestic workers also have a right to keep their personal documents and possessions. This law protects domestic workers regardless of their employment status or immigration status.
Domestic workers provide services to private homes. Services include childcare, home care, housekeeping, cleaning, cooking, home management, and gardening. This law covers both employees and independent contractors. Most individuals, including private households, and businesses that pay for domestic work services must follow this law.
Domestic workers that are also employees may also have rights under other Seattle labor standards, including the Paid Sick and Safe Time, Minimum Wage, and Wage Theft laws.
Please explore the different rights and responsibilities granted by this law by clicking on each section heading below.
Domestic workers have a right to earn at least Seattle’s minimum wage.
2024 Minimum Wage
Most hiring entities must pay at least $19.97/hour.
However, private households and employers of 500 or fewer employees may pay at least $17.25/hour and make up $2.72/hour in tips or in payments towards medical benefits. If tips or payments towards medical benefits fall short of $2.72/hour, they must make up the difference to reach at least $19.97/hour.
An employer with 501 or more employees must pay at least $19.97/hour. These employers may not use tips or payments towards medical benefits towards any portion of their minimum wage obligations.
2025 Minimum Hourly Wage
$20.76/hour
On January 1, 2025, the law requires all individuals, households, businesses and employers to pay domestic workers at least this hourly amount.
The minimum wage is adjusted annually. The Office of Labor Standards announces the adjusted minimum wage in the fall.
Domestic workers have a right to a 30-minute, uninterrupted meal period when they work for more than five consecutive hours. If their work responsibilities make it infeasible to take a meal period, the household must provide additional pay for the missed meal period.
Domestic workers have a right to a paid 10-minute, uninterrupted rest break for each four consecutive hours they work. If their work responsibilities make it infeasible to take breaks, the household must provide additional pay for the missed meal period.
The law prohibits households and businesses from keeping a domestic worker’s original documents, like passports, social security cards, or birth certificates, or other personal belongings.
Domestic workers that live in their place of employment have a right to an unpaid 24-hour period of rest if they are required to work more than six days in a row.
Households and businesses may not punish or discriminate against someone for exercising their rights. This includes threatening or reporting someone to immigration authorities or withholding pay because someone spoke with an attorney or the Office of Labor Standards about a potential violation of this law.
OLS encourages households and businesses to provide notice to workers about their rights under this law. A Model Notice of Rights is available in English and 32 other languages so that businesses and households may complete and provide this notice in the worker’s preferred language. To find these, please visit the “Resources and Language Access” pages on this website.
COVID-19 Resources. Learn how to keep your workplace safe from COVID-19.
Domestic Workers Ordinance. This link is to the Municipal Code that has all the language of the law.
Director’s Rules (Chapter 160). This link is to the rules that help clarify certain parts of the rights and responsibilities afforded by the law.
Question & Answers. This link is to a document that has many commonly asked questions and answers about the law.
Informational Booklet. This booklet is available in English and 20 additional languages. You can find these translations on the “Resources & Language Access” pages of this website.
Flyer. The Office of Labor Standards created a flyer with basic information about the law. This flyer is available in English and Tagalog. We will release Spanish, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean soon.
Short Videos. The Office of Labor Standards created six short videos about this law. To view this, please the Office’s training page or visit our YouTube playlist.
Discrimination Protections. Domestic workers also the right to be free from illegal discrimination and harassment. For more information, please contact the Office for Civil Rights at (206) 684-4500 or civilrights@seattle.gov or visit: https://seattle.gov/civilrights.
Community is at the center of the creation of the Bill of Rights. Through the collective efforts of domestic workers, hiring entities, and other community members, Seattle joined multiple State as the first City to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2018. This Bill of Rights included:
- a new law, the Domestic Workers Ordinance, which covers minimum wage, meal and rest break and other minimum labor standards protections. The Seattle Office of Labor Standards oversees this law.
- clarification of the anti-discrimination protections for domestic workers in the City’s Fair Employment Practices Ordinance. The Seattle Office for Civil Rights oversees this law.
The Bill of Rights also created a Domestic Workers Standards Board, a board of community members that provide recommendations to improve the working conditions of domestic workers in Seattle.