United States
Finding the right butler is one of the most important hiring decisions you’ll make for your home.
You need to be sure that the person you recruit has proven experience working in HNW and UHNW homes, where discretion and privacy is second nature to them.
Morgan & Mallet recruits butlers for HNW and UHNW households in the US from a database of the very best butlers in the country and the world, built up over many years.
Our co-founder Morgan Richez worked as a butler before starting the agency. That experience shapes every placement we make.
We match our butlers with exactly what you need and recruit across the whole of the US.
Contact us today to hire a butler who is right for you and your home.
A Butler Agency that covers the entire US
Our butler staffing services are nationwide.
10+ years of experience
Benefit from our 10+ years as a butler agency. Our experienced recruiters truly understand how to hire a butler who has the right experience for you.
96%
Placement Success Rate
Industry-leading success rate in matching families with compatible household staff globally.
Tailored to you
We tailor our butler recruitment to your exact needs. We listen first and then use our experience in butler staffing to match you with the right candidate.
What Does a Modern Butler Actually Do?
The role has changed. Today's butler is part household CEO, part personal assistant, part concierge.
They run your home so you don't have to think about it.
Day to day, your personal butler will handle things like:
- Managing and coordinating your household staff. This could be 10 to 20 people including your housekeeper, private chef, and chauffeur.
- Planning and running events, from dinners to parties with 50+ guests.
- Greeting and looking after house guests, preparing rooms, handling arrivals, making sure every detail of their stay is taken care of.
- Managing household budgets, sometimes exceeding $1 million a year.
- Overseeing wine collections, formal table service, and dining etiquette.
- Maintaining and organizing your wardrobe, coordinating with tailors, stylists, and dry cleaners.
- Coordinating schedules, appointments, errands, and travel arrangements across properties.
- Dealing with security and being very discreet at all times.
Some families also ask their butler to travel with them between homes or on trips abroad.
Others want a family butler who does school runs and children's events.
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, puts it this way:
"It's not because you worked as a butler for a president that you have soft skills. You can pretend to have soft skills, but it's not part of your personality."
That's the difference between a good butler and a great one.
Technical skills matter and there is some good butler training available. But personality, discretion, and judgment matter more.
To find out more about what the role involves in more depth, read our butler job description here.
Butler vs. House Manager vs. Estate Manager
These three roles overlap, and we find that families often aren’t sure which one they need, which is where we can help guide you.
A butler focuses on personal service with formal dining, guest management, wardrobe care, wine, and all the skills of front of house staff.
They’re the person your guests interact with.
A house manager focuses on operations, supplier management, maintenance schedules, budgets, and keeping the property running behind the scenes.
More like the logistics side of things, not silver service.
An estate manager looks after everything across multiple properties.
If you have homes in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach, your estate manager coordinates staff, contractors, and budgets across all locations.
Some households need all three roles. Others need to hire a butler who can handle house management too. We help you figure out which setup actually fits your life.
If you still don’t know the role you should hire, try our interactive tool that helps you calculate what household staff you actually need and the cost of their salaries.
How Much Does a Butler Cost in the US?
Butler salaries in the US range from $90,000 to $180,000 a year, based on our data from over 200,000 candidates and thousands of placements.
Where you live makes a real difference. Manhattan butlers earn roughly 30% more than the national average. Los Angeles and Miami are also premium markets.
Going live-in typically brings the base salary down by around 15-20% because housing is included.
Read our more detailed article here about how much a butler costs.
For full salary data across all household roles, see our Household Staff Salary Report.
Experience Level | Annual Salary (USD) |
|---|---|
Mid-level (3-7 years) | $90,000-$120,000 |
Senior (7+ years) | $120,000 – $150,000 |
Elite (10+ years, specialized) | $150,000 – $180,000 |
What Hours Does a Butler Typically Work?
Most butlers work five or five and a half days a week. Daily hours usually fall between 10 and 12, though this varies by household.
If you entertain a lot or travel often, your butler’s schedule will change around that.
You agree on details during the hiring process and we help set expectations on both sides.
The key is being upfront about your expectations so our butler staffing agency can match you with someone whose working style fits.
What Qualities Should
Your Butler Have?
We interview every butler candidate for 90 minutes. We’re looking for specific things.
Discretion above everything -Laurine Mallet has a simple test when it comes to butler staffing:
“The candidates like to talk. Most of them will say ‘this happened, that happened’ or ‘I saw my boss with another lady.’ When that happens, we make a note. If you overshare in an interview, you’re not suitable.”
Proven experience in high-end homes – Our butlers average 7 years of experience in private households.
Every reference is checked with former employers directly not colleagues.
Many hold formal training from recognized butler schools, though we value real-world experience more heavily than credentials alone.
Composure and judgment – Ellie Littlechild, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, tests this with real scenarios:
“Travel changes late in the evening. Vendor failures before guests arrive. Expense approvals under pressure. These moments reveal working style quickly.”
Staff leadership – Your butler will likely manage your housekeeper, private chef, chauffeur, and other household staff. They need to lead by example and keep the team coordinated.
Language skills and cultural awareness – In international households, the ability to speak different languages is very important.
Many of our US clients have properties abroad and need butlers comfortable speaking different languages.
The best way to understand what qualities a butler has is through an interview. You can read our butler interview questions here to see what we cover.
Essential butler skills include:
- Staff management and coordination.
- Discretion.
- Wine knowledge and cellar management.
- Technology skills for smart homes.
- Cultural awareness and etiquette expertise.
- Financial management for household budgets.
- Crisis management and problem-solving.
- Physical stamina for 50-60 hour weeks.
Where We Place Butlers in the US
New York
Our busiest US market. Clients looking to hire a butler in New York include finance executives, media figures, and families managing between Manhattan townhouses and weekend properties in the Hamptons or Connecticut.
Los Angeles
Entertainment industry clients needing absolute discretion. 84% of our LA candidates have worked for families worth $30 million or more.
Miami
Our fastest growing US market, including Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton. Many families split time between South Florida and the Northeast or Europe.
San Francisco
Tech executives and startup founders. Butlers here need to be comfortable with smart home systems and be able to adapt to what it’s like working for someone who runs a billion dollar tech company.
We also place butlers in the Hamptons, Aspen, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, Greenwich, and Scottsdale.
Butlers for Different Households
Butlers work in all sorts of households, and the right placement comes down to how your home actually runs.
A lot of our clients own more than one property and want a butler who travels with them. That might mean moving between Manhattan, the Hamptons, and a villa abroad, or joining them on a yacht for the summer.
Others run larger estates where a head butler leads the housekeepers, chefs, and chauffeurs.
English-trained butlers are still the most requested profile we get. US clients in particular tend to want the full thing. Silver service, formal dining, wine and spirits, proper household routines.
Female butlers are getting more popular in certain markets. Female principals, single mothers, and families with young daughters often prefer a female butler, whether that’s down to comfort, security, or cultural reasons.
Not sure which profile fits your household? A quick call with one of our recruiters will usually sort it out.
How We Find the Right Butler for You
We start by understanding your household.
We start with 30+ detailed questions about your home, your routine, your properties and your expectations. These
conversations often tell us needs you hadn't considered.
We search our database of 200,000+ candidates.
Every candidate has already passed a 90-minute interview, criminal background check, and employment verification going back 5–7 years.
Our quality control manager Eric Rios, who previously recruited software engineers at Google, audits every profile monthly.
You see three to five candidates, maximum.
Each comes with a detailed profile and our honest assessment of strengths and where they might need support. Your time is too valuable for unsuitable candidates.
Trial periods test real-world fit.
We support both sides through the first few weeks, catching small issues before they become problems.
Our relationship continues after placement.
Household needs change. Challenges come up. We stay available for guidance, think of us as your household staffing partner.
We back every placement with a three-month replacement guarantee.
Butler Hiring Resources
Everything you need to know before hiring a butler for your household.
Butler Interview questions → The areas we assess in our interviews, and sample questions to ask.
Butler job description → What the main duties of a butler are.
How much does a butler cost? → A guide to the average salaries of butlers in the US.
Butler training and qualifications → The best butler training courses and is experience or qualifications better.
Ready To Find Your Perfect Butler?
Morgan Richez worked as a butler himself before starting the agency. Laurine Mallet worked as a nanny. Together, they bring over 30 years of hands-on experience to every placement.
We have 8 offices across 4 continents, a database of 200,000+ candidates, and a 96% placement success rate for butler roles.
Call us on +1 (646)965-2308 or get in touch through our website to start your search.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions when it comes to hiring a Butler.
Do butlers still exist in the USA?
Very much so. Butler is one of our five most-requested roles in the US. We opened our Manhattan office in 2024 because demand was growing fast.
The role looks different from the traditional image. Today’s American butler is as likely to manage smart home systems and security as they are to look after formal dining service.
They do a bit of everything.The biggest demand comes from New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.
Should I hire a live-in or live-out butler?
It depends on your household. Live-in butlers are available around the clock and become more involved in the day-to-day.
Live-out butlers keep a clearer line between work and personal time.
About 89% of our butler candidates are happy with either arrangement. Live-in positions typically pay 15–20% less because housing is included, but they work well for families with large properties or unpredictable schedules.
We help you figure out which setup fits when we first talk.
How long does it take to find the right butler?
Usually 2–8 weeks, depending on what you need. A straightforward placement in a major city moves faster because we have more candidates in those markets.
Specialized searches take longer if you need a butler fluent in Mandarin with yacht experience, for example, there are obviously going to be less candidates around.
When that happens, we’ll tell you how long we think it will take.
We’d rather wait for the right person than rush a placement that doesn’t last.
What happens if the placement doesn't work out?
Every placement comes with a three-month replacement guarantee. If the butler leaves or isn’t the right fit within that period, we restart the search at no extra cost.
We also stay involved after placement to catch issues early. Rachel Dixon, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, recommends a solid onboarding: “Walk through routines. Explain preferences. Introduce vendors properly. Clarify authority and communication norms. When onboarding is weak, households misread confusion as failure.”
Can a butler travel with my family?
Yes. Many of our US clients have multiple homes, and their butler moves with them, spending nine months in Manhattan and three months in the Hamptons, for example, or splitting time between Miami and the Northeast.
Some families need a butler who travels internationally too. Your butler might coordinate moves between homes in New York, London, and Monaco several times a year.
When we interview candidates, we check whether they’re willing to travel and whether their passport allows it.
What should I expect to provide for my butler?
After salary, most families provide health insurance. Live-in butlers need their own living space, which would include a separate bedroom at minimum, ideally a guest house or apartment with its own entrance.
Other common benefits include a vehicle or car allowance, paid vacation (usually 2–4 weeks), and travel costs when they travel with you.
Agree on the terms upfront. It saves problems later. As Eric Rios, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, puts it: “Disputes are traced back to unclear pay terms more often than personality conflict. Written wage structures reduce tension before it starts.”
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 (646)965-2308
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Miami
office address
1221 Brickell Ave Bricknell, Miami, FL 33131, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Los Angeles
office address
895 Dove St, Newport Beach, CA 92660, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Find Butler Jobs:
If you’re an experienced Butler looking for a role in some of the most prestigious households, then Morgan & Mallet can help you find a role that is perfect for your skills.
Visit our jobs board now and take the first step towards your new, fulfilling role.
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Household and Estate