Nannies of the Northwest, Unite! Seattle Tests a New Labor Model

For a growing chunk of America’s labor force, the workplace is the home—someone else’s home.

And in Seattle, nannies, cleaners and home-caregivers just won a battle that offers a glimpse of a brighter future for the embattled U.S. labor movement.

The city’s council unanimously passed legislation late July 23 that enshrines minimum wages and guaranteed rest-breaks for domestic workers, who were excluded from many New Deal-era labor protections. What’s groundbreaking about the Seattle measure is that it also empowers the workers to negotiate industry-wide conditions and regulations.

They’ll be represented, along with employers, on a new permanent board tasked with ...