In March 2026, Washington took a significant step forward for household employment by passing the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights (HB 2355), a landmark piece of legislation that will take effect on July 1, 2027. The new law establishes a range of protections for domestic workers working four or more hours a month, including nannies, housekeepers, household managers, cooks, gardeners, personal care providers, and other professionals who provide services within private homes.
At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we view this legislation as a positive step forward for both workers and families. For more than 14 years, we’ve operated on a simple belief: when employees are supported, respected, and treated professionally, everyone benefits.
“I was happy to co-sponsor and help pass HB 2355, the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, during the 2026 legislative session in Olympia.” said Cindy Ryu, State Representative for Washington’s 32nd Legislative District, co-sponsor of HB 2355. “Domestic workers in Washington State are often women working hard to support their own families while improving the quality of life for others. HB 2355 recognizes the value of their work and helps ensure they receive the protections and respect they deserve.”
Representative Ryu also noted that “The bill’s passage was supported by business owners like Kara Roberts, who understand and embrace its intent and goals. Through Pepper’s Personal Assistants, Kara has built a company that already reflects many of the values embodied in HB 2355 by providing health insurance, paid time off, 401(k) benefits, and ongoing training for the personal assistants she employs to support local families and individuals with household management.”
As the implementation date approaches, this new law serves as an important reminder that hiring someone to work in your home comes with real responsibilities.
Understanding the New Law
HB 2355 establishes baseline protections for domestic workers in private homes, focused on fair pay, written agreements, workplace rights, and enforcement.
Core Protections
Fair Compensation: Domestic workers must be paid at least the state minimum wage and receive overtime (1.5x pay) for hours worked over 40 in a week.
Written Agreements: Employers must provide a written employment agreement, in a language understood by both parties, outlining terms, pay, and schedules.
Paid Sick Leave: Workers accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked.
Privacy & Rights: Employers may not confiscate personal documents, monitor private spaces (such as bathrooms), or include noncompete or mandatory arbitration clauses.
Termination & Severance
Notice Requirements: Employers must provide advance written notice of termination of at least two weeks, or four weeks for live-in workers.
Severance Pay: If required notice is not provided, severance pay is owed.
Anti-Retaliation: Workers are protected from retaliation, including immigration-related threats, with a presumption of retaliation if adverse action occurs within 90 days of asserting rights.
Enforcement
Workers may file complaints with the Washington Department of Labor & Industries or pursue a private civil lawsuit for damages and attorney fees in cases of violations.
What This Means for Families
Many families hire household support to help manage demanding careers, children’s schedules, travel, aging parents, and the countless responsibilities of daily life.
What many don’t realize is that hiring household staff often means taking on the role of employer.
That responsibility can include:
Employment agreements
Payroll and tax compliance
Time and overtime tracking
Labor law compliance
Performance management
Documentation and recordkeeping
Professional terminations
Staying current with changing regulations
For families with no HR or employment-law background, these responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming adding to the already strained mental load.
Why Professional Support Matters
For more than 14 years, Pepper’s Personal Assistants has built a model designed to support both clients and employees.
Our personal assistants are W-2 employees who receive ongoing training, management, HR support, and employee benefits. We maintain employment policies, address performance concerns, provide a substitute personal assistant for employee PTO, and provide the structure needed to build successful long-term working relationships.
This approach has always been central to our philosophy, not because legislation required it, but because it’s the right way to support people.
For clients, that means peace of mind. Rather than navigating employment complexities alone, they gain access to established systems, experienced professionals, and a dedicated team committed to helping both clients and employees succeed.
As Washington’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights takes effect in 2027, we believe it represents a meaningful step forward for domestic workers, families, and the future of household employment.
Most families don’t start out looking to become employers. They start with a need: more time, more ease, and more support at home. Someone to help manage the moving parts of daily life, schedules, travel, meals, households, pets, aging parents, and everything in between.
But in practice, hiring household help often turns into something very different: managing staff.
From Support to Employer
When families hire directly, they quickly find themselves responsible for much more than household help. They become employers often without realizing it.
That can include:
Payroll and tax compliance
Employment agreements and labor law requirements
Scheduling, overtime tracking, and documentation
Performance management and conflict resolution
Terminations, notices, and legal compliance
Staying current with evolving employment laws
What begins as a simple desire for help at home can quietly turn into a second job: managing employment.
Managed Support vs. Managing Staff
At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we’ve built something different. Instead of families managing employees on their own, we provide fully managed support, a system designed so clients can stay focused on their lives, not HR responsibilities.
We think of this as the difference between:
Managing Staff
You are the employer
You handle compliance, payroll, HR issues, and risk
You navigate performance and legal complexity alone
You carry the administrative and emotional load
Managed Support
We employ and support your household manager
We handle HR, payroll, compliance, and training
We provide ongoing oversight and employee development
You focus on life, priorities, and enjoying the outcome
This is the foundation of what we call Life Managed Well.
Designed for Real Life
For more than 14 years, Pepper’s has refined a model built around one idea: household support should actually create ease not additional responsibility.
Our personal assistants are W-2 employees who receive:
Ongoing training and professional development
HR support and performance management
Payroll, benefits, and structured employment systems
Clear expectations and documented processes
A dedicated team behind every placement
Just as importantly, clients are supported too. We don’t just place someone in a home, we stay involved, helping ensure the relationship works over time. With our Perfect Fit Guarantee if your assistant isn’t the right fit or your needs change, we will seamlessly replace them at no additional cost.
Why This Matters Now
With new legislation like Washington’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights taking effect in 2027, the responsibilities tied to household employment are becoming even more defined.
But the deeper truth has always been the same, hiring someone into your home isn’t just about getting help, it’s about taking on responsibility. And most families don’t actually want to become HR departments.
Finding A Different Way Forward
Life doesn’t get simpler by adding more to manage. It gets simpler when the managing is handled for you. That’s the difference between managing staff and having managed support.
And it’s the foundation of what we mean when we say: Life Managed Well.
At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we believe life works better when we don’t do it alone.
Recently, our Founder and CEO, Kara Roberts, attended the EO Women’s Summit in Lisbon, where women from around the world gathered to discuss leadership, health, resilience, money, and personal growth. While there were countless insights shared, one simple message stood out:
“I’m here for you, and that makes me happy.”
That spirit of presence and support showed up throughout the summit. From conversations about topics women don’t discuss often enough, from money to menopause, to stories of resilience, reinvention, and leadership, the common thread was connection.
One powerful exercise challenged participants to sit knee-to-knee with a stranger and make eye contact for six minutes without speaking. What began as discomfort became a reminder of how deeply people crave genuine connection and understanding.
The experience reinforced something we see every day at Pepper’s: support isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity to support drive and growth.
Many of our clients are accomplished professionals managing demanding careers, households, families, and countless responsibilities. The goal isn’t to do more. It’s to create space for what matters most.
Space for family.
Space for health.
Space for joy.
Space to be fully present.
The summit’s theme centered around The Power of Us, and it couldn’t have been more fitting. When people come together to share knowledge, offer support, and lift each other up, everyone benefits.
That’s what we strive to create at Pepper’s every day: a life with more ease, more support, and more room for the things that matter most.
Because living well was never meant to be a solo endeavor.
At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we often talk about the magic that happens when someone combines intuition, consistency, and genuine care. It’s the difference between simply completing tasks and truly transforming someone’s day-to-day life.
This quarter, we are incredibly proud to recognize Cheyan DuVal as our Employee of the Quarter.
Not only for the exceptional work she delivers to clients, but for the unique perspective and problem-solving abilities she brings to every home she supports. Cheyan embodies Pepper’s Personal Assistants core commitment of what it means to “Provide Ease.” She anticipates needs before they become stressors, notices details others may overlook, and creates systems that help clients feel calmer, more supported, and more capable in their daily lives. Her work reflects the very heart of Pepper’s mission: making life easier in ways that are both practical and deeply personal.
What makes Cheyan especially remarkable is the way she sees the world.
When asked what strengths help her best support clients, she described her skills with refreshing honesty and humor: “weaponized autism and elite pattern recognition.” While playful in phrasing, there’s something deeply powerful behind that statement. Cheyan’s perspective allows her to recognize patterns, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement in ways that many people simply cannot. She notices the small details that often go unseen. In the world of household management, this ability is invaluable.
Clients often come to Pepper’s because their lives are full. They’re balancing careers, children, businesses, schedules, caregiving responsibilities, travel, social commitments, and the constant stream of logistics that modern life demands. What they truly need is not just another set of hands. They need someone who can think ahead. Someone who can anticipate. Someone who can quietly create order where there was once overwhelm.
That is where Cheyan shines.
Her day-to-day responsibilities may sound straightforward on paper: errands, laundry, tidying, meal preparation, household upkeep. But the value she provides goes far beyond task completion.
Cheyan approaches household management strategically. She observes how a home functions and naturally begins optimizing it.
She notices where systems break down, where routines create unnecessary stress, and where a small adjustment can create meaningful relief for a client.
Whether it’s anticipating household supply needs, creating smoother organizational systems, adjusting routines to support a family’s schedule more efficiently, or simply recognizing the rhythm of a home and adapting accordingly, Cheyan consistently demonstrates an extraordinary level of awareness and initiative.
The ability to create trust and consistency is part of what makes Pepper’s so special as a company.
At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we know that exceptional service is never just about efficiency. It’s about people. It’s about relationships. It’s about creating support systems that genuinely improve quality of life. Team members like Cheyan help bring that mission to life every single day through the care, intention, and professionalism she brings into clients’ homes.
We are incredibly grateful for the consistency, intelligence, humor, and heart Cheyan brings to the Pepper’s team. Her work may happen quietly behind the scenes, but its impact is felt deeply by the clients she supports and the families whose lives run more smoothly because of her efforts.
We are so proud to celebrate Cheyan as Pepper’s Employee of the Quarter!
Get Your Time and Headspace Back — Starting Sooner Than You Think
We know you need help yesterday. That’s exactly why we built a process that gets you support fast, matches you with the right person, and stays by your side through the whole relationship.
Finding a great personal assistant shouldn’t feel like a second job. Managing one shouldn’t either. At Pepper’s, we’ve spent years refining a process that takes the work off your plate from the very first conversation and keeps it there.
90
minutes or less of your time across 3 short meetings.That’s all we need between your first call and your PA getting started in your home. We handle everything in between.
Here’s what the process looks like
A lot happens behind the scenes. Your part is simple.
Getting started call
We know exactly what questions to ask to quickly figure out if we’re a mutual fit, and we’re ready to answer any questions you have.
Service agreement and getting started fee
Simple and transparent. You know exactly what you’re signing up for before anything begins.
Deep dive call
This is where we really get to know you. Your preferences, your household, your communication style, the rhythms of your daily life. The more we understand, the better we match.
Full recruitment on your behalf
We post the job, review every application, conduct multiple rounds of interviews, and complete thorough background and reference checks. You don’t lift a finger.
Meet your Jumpstarter in your home
We understand you need help yesterday. So while your permanent PA is being recruited, we send a Jumpstarter, an experienced Pepper’s team member, into your home right away. Real support starts immediately, no waiting required.
Your PA is hired and trained the Pepper’s Way
Once selected, your PA is trained in our systems, standards, and service philosophy. They’re prepared before they ever walk through your door.
Meet your PA for onboarding
Your Jumpstarter spends the first week training alongside your new PA in your home, passing along everything they’ve learned about how you live and what you need. Your household guide is already filled out with your preferences, your routines, your systems. You don’t have to brief anyone or repeat yourself. We’ve got it handled.
Ongoing check-ins and your Perfect Fit Guarantee
We check in regularly to make sure your expectations are being met as your life evolves. And if something isn’t working, we make it right. Our Perfect Fit Guarantee means that if your assistant isn’t the right fit or your needs change, we will seamlessly replace them at no additional cost.
Ongoing PA management, support, and training
Your PA has a manager and it’s not you. We handle performance conversations, raise discussions, and professional development. And when your PA takes time off, our team of trained substitutes means you’re never left without coverage.
We built Pepper’s so that getting great help doesn’t require more of your time and energy. It gives it back.
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