Code of the District of Columbia

§ 32–1071.01. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term:

(1) "Casual basis" means occurring at irregular, uncertain, or incidental times and differing in nature from the type of paid work in which the worker is customarily engaged.

(2) "Domestic services" means the following work when performed in or around a private residence:

(A) Child care, except work performed by the employee of a child development facility, as defined in § 7-2031(3);

(B) Aiding an elderly person or a person with a disability in activities of daily living;

(C) Organizing, managing, or cleaning the home or its contents, including laundering clothes and washing dishes;

(D) Cooking, preparing, or serving food; or

(E) Services such as gardening, driving, or shopping when they are incidental to the services described in subparagraphs (A) through (D) of this paragraph.

(3) "Domestic services agency" means a hiring entity that employs 2 or more domestic workers and dispatches them to the private residences of customers.

(4) "Domestic worker" means an individual who performs domestic services for compensation in or around the private residence of another, but does not include:

(A) An individual who is a family member of the hiring entity for whom the individual performs domestic services;

(B) An individual who primarily performs household repairs or construction, such as plumbing, masonry, painting, renovating, or similar construction work;

(C) An individual whose primary responsibilities are caring for, boarding, or walking dogs, cats, or other household pets; or

(D) An individual employed or engaged on a casual basis.

(5) "Engage" means to pay an independent contractor a fee for services.

(6) "Hiring entity" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or other entity, person, or group that employs or seeks to employ or engages or seeks to engage an individual to perform domestic services in the District for 5 or more hours in a calendar month. The term "hiring entity" does not include the customer of a domestic services agency or an agency, branch, or instrumentality of a state, the District, or the United States government.

(7) "Live-in domestic worker" means a domestic worker whose employer provides the domestic worker with lodging in the residence where the domestic work is performed.

(8) "Referral agency" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any entity, person, or group, other than a hiring entity, that, as a primary function of its business, connects prospective or current hiring entities and domestic workers to facilitate domestic services.

(9) "Services contract" means a written agreement between one or more hiring entities and one or more domestic workers.

(10) "Shared services" means domestic services that a single domestic worker performs, often simultaneously for the mutual benefit of 2 or more hiring entities on a regular schedule, such as when 2 families employ a single caregiver to provide shared childcare for the families' children during the traditional work week.

(11) "Wage Payment Act" means Chapter 13 of this title.