On Tuesday, both houses of Hawaii’s state legislature passed a bill that grants domestic workers basic labor rights:

The bill passed the House and Senate on Tuesday with little opposition in the heavily Democratic chambers. It covers cooks, waiters, butlers, housekeepers and other workers, including babysitters in some cases.

The bill makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone employed as a domestic worker based on race, gender, sexual orientation and other factors.

The bill also brings them under the protection of the state’s wage and hour laws. It now heads to Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s (D) desk. If he signs it into law, Hawaii will join New York as the only two states with laws on the books to grant domestic workers basic worker protections. The Illinois Senate’s labor committee is also set to vote on the state’s proposed bill of rights this week, and California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Texas, and Ohio are expected to consider similar measures soon.

Domestic workers inhabit a booming industry, but one that offers little pay and is rife with abuse. A survey by the National Domestic Workers Alliance found that 20 percent of housekeepers and nearly a third of nannies and caregivers make less than the minimum wage. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the domestic workforce is paid less than $13 an hour. Forty percent of nannies and caregivers work more than 40 hours, yet 85 percent aren’t guaranteed overtime pay. About 20 percent of domestic workers report being threatened, insulted, or verbally abused by their employers, a figure that rises to 36 percent for live-in workers, yet they have little recourse to report and address abuse.

New York’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights addressed all of these issues by affirming the right to be paid a minimum wage and granting the right to overtime pay at time-and-a-half over 40 hours, protection for workers who suffer sexual or racial harassment, and earned paid days off.

President Obama will reportedly choose Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general who oversees the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. Perez, a popular pick among labor and Latino groups, is expected to be nominated this week, according to various news reports. Should he be confirmed by the Senate, Perez will take over Labor at a time when Obama and Democrats are pushing for immigration reform and a minimum wage increase.

Before his current role began, Perez served in Bill Clinton’s Justice Dept., as a city council member in Montgomery County, Maryland, and as the head of Maryland’s state labor department. And while Perez has spent the last four years leading the administration’s challenges to new voter restrictions, his past also includes experience fighting to protect and expand workers’ rights:

Fought worker exploitation and human trafficking: Perez served on the Worker Exploitation Task Force, which sought to protect vulnerable workers, while working in the Justice Dept. under Attorney General Janet Reno. The task force aimed to fight “modern day slavery” that resulted from human trafficking, discrimination in labor markets, and other exploitative practices, according to Senate testimony from former officials. The task force secured multiple convictions involving the trafficking and exploitation of women and children workers, and helped lead to calls around the country for stronger anti-trafficking laws both at the federal and state level.

Pushed for labor protections for domestic workers: Millions of domestic workers in the United States make low wages because they aren’t protected by labor law, a problem Perez sought to address while serving on Montgomery County’s City Council, where he pushed for contractual labor law protections and a minimum wage for such workers. After three years of debate, and after Perez had left the council, those protections became law in 2008 and gave domestic workers contractual labor rights they still lack in most of the United States.

Protected immigrant workers from losing pay: Perez would take over the Dept. of Labor in the middle of Obama’s push for immigration reform, and he has experience dealing with immigration and labor issues. While serving in the Justice Dept., Perez investigated claims that employers were using Alabama’s new immigration law to avoid paying immigrant workers. “We continue to be concerned that certain employers may be using HB56 as an excuse not to pay workers,” he said, adding that he would “throw the book” at employers who weren’t paying workers. “We’re here. We will prosecute you. That is impermissible, period.”

America’s domestic home help workers, most of them female minorities, earn low wages and often receive no retirement or health benefits because they lack basic labor protections, according to a first-of-its-kind survey of more than 2,000 domestic workers in 14 American cities. The report from the National Domestic Workers Alliance and affiliated groups found that nearly a quarter of nannies, caregivers, and home health workers make less than the minimum wage in the states in which they work, and nearly half — 48 percent — are paid less than needed to adequately support a family.

Ninety-five percent of domestic workers are female, according to the survey, and the wage gaps that persist throughout the American economy are especially prevalent in the industry. More than half of domestic workers are minority, with 54 percent identifying as Latina, African-American, or Asian. The median hourly wage of white domestic workers is $2.13 an hour higher than it is for Latinas and Asians and $1.14 an hour higher than it is for blacks. But across the industry, wages are incredibly low:

Live-in workers have especially low wages. The median wage for that group is just $6.15 an hour, and 67 percent are paid below their state’s minimum wage. Overall, 70 percent of domestic workers are paid less than $13 an hour, and less than 9 percent make more than $18 an hour. Just 4 percent of live-in workers make more than $18 an hour.

For undocumented workers, who make up a significant portion of the domestic workforce, the wage situation is even worse:

It isn’t just wages, though. Less than 2 percent of all domestic workers receive retirement or pension benefits, and only 9 percent work for employers who pay into Social Security, according to the report. Nearly two-thirds live without health insurance, and only 4 percent receive employer-provided health care. Just 8 percent work for employers who provide a contractual agreement, while two-thirds work under verbal agreements that offer few protections.

The reason the situation is so dire for domestic workers is because they are excluded from standard labor protections. The National Labor Relations Act does not cover domestic workers, meaning they have no guaranteed right to organize or form unions to bargain for wages and benefits. Federal workplace discrimination laws also largely exclude domestic workers because they apply to businesses with multiple employees. As a result, domestic workers are often subject to wage theft and rarely paid for overtime.

States and localities have undertaken efforts in recent years to expand such rights to domestic workers, but many have failed. In 2010, New York passed a law granting basic rights to domestic workers, and Montgomery County, Maryland enacted a similar law in 2008. The most recent high-profile attempt to enshrine domestic worker rights failed in October, when California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights because he said it left “a number of unanswered questions.” The California law would have covered more than 200,000 of the state’s domestic workers and was opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

Despite a brief moment of optimism, it turns out that domestic workers in California still won’t be guaranteed a lunch break.

As part of his clean sweep on unfinished legislation from the state house, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) late last night vetoed a bill that would have ensured basic rights for in-home aide workers. Such protections would have included overtime pay, meal breaks, and “adequate sleeping conditions for live-in workers.”

The California Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby with strong anti-union positions, opposed the protections, arguing that domestic workers couldn’t take breaks without endangering the health of those for whom they are providing care.

Brown apparently sided with those interests. In a letter explaining his decision, he said that he had “unanswered questions” about the bill. But he seemed to have answered some of those questions, as well, since he provided a list of qualms he had with the legislation, arguing that it would cost the state, and disabled employers, too much.

The Domestic Workers’ Alliance responded to Brown’s veto in a statement, calling Brown’s decision “a huge disappointment”:

“It is a huge disappointment that Governor Brown chose not to recognize the people caring for California’s families and homes as real workers,” said Sylvia Lopez a worker with the California Domestic Workers Coalition, sponsor of the bill. “For decades we have tirelessly cared for California’s homes, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities without the protection of basic rights. Tonight, Governor Brown has done a tremendous disservice to thousands of domestic workers, their families, and the people they care for.”

Domestic workers are a largely immigrant, largely female constituency across the country — groups that are often voiceless in political debates. The rights requested in the bill were in no way substantially different from those afforded to employees in small or large businesses, but are harder to enforce in a household setting.