Harvard couple who paid housekeeper $4 a week for more than 13 YEARS are spared jail

Martha Smalanskas, 48, and Richard Smalanskas, 49, from Harvard, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to violating the Fair Labor Standards Act at a federal court hearing in Boston on Wednesday

They originally met their victim in Bolivia when she was 16 and hired for as a nanny for their three children

Three years later they brought her to the U.S. illegally, claiming her to be a relative

For 13 years and four months she worked as their housekeeper and nanny, with the prosecution saying she made $2500 total



The family will pay her $150,000 restitution and serve 12 months probation, escaping prison time for a charge of harboring an illegal immigrant, which was subsequently dropped

A Boston couple with three children have pleaded guilty to the mistreatment of an immigrant they illegally smuggled into the U.S. to work around-the-clock as their housekeeper and nanny, paying her just $2,500 for 13 years of servitude.

At a federal court hearing in Boston on Wednesday, Martha Smalanskas, 48, and Richard Smalanskas, 49, who live in Harvard, Massachusetts, admitted to paying the victim at times just $35 a month, with authorities determining the family owed her roughly $301,000 under prevailing minimum wage - $298,500 less than what she actually earned.

The victim worked for the family from 1997 to 2011 - a total of 13 years and four months.

As a result, the couple will be forced to pay the woman - who was not identified but is believed to be about 35-years-old - $150,000 in restitution and serve a year of probation, under an agreement they reached with prosecutors, according to The Boston Globe.



Scene: The victim worked and lived in this house in Harvard, Massachusetts, for 13 years and four months, earning just $2500 the entire time. Her jobs including cleaning, cooking, caring for three children and even shoveling snow, the prosecution said

A charge of harboring an illegal immigrant, which carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison, will be dismissed.

The pair will be sentenced on April 2 after pleading guilty to charges of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The case started when the couple hired the Bolivian woman as a nanny when she was 16.

The family were living in Bolivia at the time.

After three years, they brought her to the United States by falsifying documents to make it appear she was a relative.

Once in the country, they took away and her travel documents and forced her to work from 6am to 8pm, six days a week.

That's 84 hours a week and 336 hours a month.

Among the victims duties were cooking, cleaning, caring for three children and even shoveling snow. She earned around $4 a week for 84 hours work. This is a stock image

The family had originally promised her $100 a month.

Prosecutors determined they ended up paying the victim as little as $35 dollars a month, which is less than 10 cents an hour.

Earning $2500 for 13 years work - as the prosecution said - works out to be $192 a year and $16 a month.

Thats $4 a week and less than one cent an hour.



As part of her job she cooked, cleaned, cared for the children and even shoveled snow.

She had Sundays off and was occasionally allowed to early on Saturdays.

The victim was removed from the home for unknown reasons in May 2011.