An earlier version of this article misattributed Rep. Alma Adams's quote to Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.).

Gladys Sandoval picked their kids up from school every day, right on time.

Her bosses were less punctual.

“My employer only would pay sporadically, any time they felt,” Sandoval said through an interpreter in her testimony before a D.C. Council committee earlier this year. “Every three weeks, every two weeks. Every four weeks.”

“He didn’t respect my pay. He didn’t respect my schedule,” said Sandoval, who has been a domestic worker in the nation’s capital for 25 years. “Because I didn’t have a contract.”

D.C. — the land of contracts, rules and requirements — has never offered such protections to the people who clean the toilets and feed the children of those who claim to run everything.

Like so many other ugly things festering in our nation’s capital, the glaring lack of support for domestic workers has its foundation in racism, but we’ll get to that later.

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Sandoval and thousands like her are moving toward being treated like what they are — essential workers — under legislation creating a domestic workers bill of rights, which was advanced this week by the D.C. Council.

“These women were just asking for basic employment rights, like everyone else,” said D.C. Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large), who introduced the bill.

The bill is common sense, and it ensures workers will have contracts outlining the basics that most of us expect in a job...

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