Hiring a domestic couple for a HNW or UHNW home isn’t like any other private service hire you’ll make.
You’re hiring a partnership that will live in your home, run the property when you’re not there, and split a workload. They need real experience as a couple, they have to be proven to be able to work together. They need to fit alongside your other staff if you have them, and be naturally discrete when you’re there.
We recruit proven and experienced domestic couples for properties where their skills allow you to have complete confidence that everything is taken care of.
Morgan & Mallet was founded in 2015 by Laurine Mallet, a former private nanny for HNW families, and Morgan Richez, a former butler and chauffeur for UHNW households. They built the agency around what was missing when they were the ones being placed: a recruiter who’d actually done the job and knew what to ask.
For most domestic couple searches, you’ll see three to five matched couples within four to six weeks, with paid trial days in your home if needed before you commit to them.
Every placement has a 90-day replacement guarantee, and we have a 96% success rate for roles we staff.
If you’re looking to hire a domestic couple, you’re in the right place
Years placing Domestic Couples
Placement success rate
Candidates in our database
US placements are second-home couples
What does a domestic couple do?
A domestic couple is a two-person team who run a private home together. Usually one of them works on the inside and the other the outside, the cars, and the grounds. They almost always live on the property.
How they split the work depends on the home and the family as well as their own skills. The setups we see most often in the US:
Housekeeper and houseman. The woman in the partnership does the inside. Cleaning, laundry, linens, ironing, light cooking, getting guest rooms ready. The man works on the outside, fixing things, driving, errands, and security. This is quite normal for areas like the Hamptons or Aspen.
Cook and caretaker. She cooks daily meals and runs the kitchen. He looks after the grounds, the pool, the cars, and lets the suppliers in. Common on second homes in Florida, Montana, and the Carolinas.
Butler and housekeeper. Formal service inside the home, and full housekeeping tasks. More normal in main residences than vacation homes. We find that this is the least common of the three mentioned here.
About 7 in 10 of our US placements are in a second home. The family lives there for part of the year and the couple keeps the place ready year-round so it never feels closed up.
That means stocking the fridge before the owners arrive. Running the cars. Checking the property after storms. Dealing with the gardener, the pool guy, the alarm company. And just being there. Morgan our co-founder calls it “having a human in the property when the owner is not there.”
For more on the day-to-day, see our domestic couple job description page.
How much does a domestic couple cost in the US?
According to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Annual Report, domestic couple salaries in the United States are from $100,000 to $250,000+ per year combined, and most are between $150,000 and $200,000.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet International:
“In the US, if you are looking for a domestic couple, you need to pay at least $150,000 a year. That’s the minimum.”
Morgan goes on to explain that salaries have gone up sharply over the last three years. The pool is small, most career couples are between 45 and 55, and the next generation isn’t replacing them.
What kind of accommodation do domestic couples need?
Almost every domestic couple role in the US is live-in. Morgan: “When we’re talking about domestic couples, almost 99% are going to be live-in. There is no live-out position for a domestic couple. It doesn’t really exist.”
That makes accommodation the thing first-time employers most often get wrong. It needs to be a separate, decent unit. This is not optional.
A converted basement or a studio above the garage only works if it’s properly finished. Windows, heating, a proper kitchen, a real bathroom. A guest cottage or detached staff quarters is what we see on most US estates.
Morgan our co-founder: “Some clients, the accommodation is completely bad. Without windows, in the basement. The accommodation is a very important point. You need to offer decent, furnished, modern accommodation.”
To keep a good couple you need to have good accommodation, they just won’t stay if it’s not good enough.
How does Morgan & Mallet vet a domestic couple?
Every candidate goes through a 90-minute interview before they join our database. For couples, we interview both partners on their own and then together before we send them to any client.
We test discretion, technical skills, and we go through real situations that could happen.
For couples we also want to see how they actually work as a team. We look at how they communicate, how they split the work, and how long they’ve genuinely been doing it together.
We need to see that the couple have been together for a long time and understand how each other works. The success of the placement really rests on this so this is very important for us to check.
Reference checks take 7 to 10 business days. We ask former employers detailed questions so get a clear picture of how they worked together in the past.
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, personally runs the final discretion checks on senior placements where NDAs are involved.
How long does it take to hire a domestic couple in the US?
Most US placements take four to eight weeks from the brief you give us to the date they start. Specialist searches can take twelve weeks or longer.
If the right couple isn’t available straight away, we will let you know. We’d rather extend the search and find the right people than rush you a placement.
Morgan our co-founder: “If we struggle to find a domestic couple, of course we can suggest splitting the role and finding two people. But the accommodation is set up for a couple, not for two individuals. So it’s not always easy.”
If we’re four to six weeks in to the placement and the right couple hasn’t come up, we usually give you a few choices. Extend the search and we’ll brief you on what’s slowing it down. Raise the salary range to widen the pool. Or split the role into a housekeeper-cook and a houseman, though that means two sets of accommodation, not one.
Once we have matches, you see three to five candidate couples. We set up the interviews and a paid trial in the home.
Rachel Dixon, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet: “I always advise a trial period, so they can see how the candidate works in their home and with the family.”
Resumes only tell you so much. You need to see how a couple actually works in your space before you make any decisions.
Is there a guarantee on a domestic couple placement?
Yes. Every Morgan & Mallet domestic couple placement comes with a 90-day replacement guarantee. If it doesn’t work out, we replace the couple at no extra cost.
We also help with the employment paperwork. Household payroll, tax withholding, and we can connect you with attorneys who handle domestic employment in New York, Florida, California, and the other states where we regularly staff.
We place domestic couples nationally, with the highest concentration in New York, the Hamptons, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Aspen, and Greenwich.
What skills should a domestic couple have?
A domestic couple has to cover more skills than any single role. Between the two of them, you need:
Strong English. Both partners need to communicate clearly with the family, the staff, and the suppliers. One partner with weaker English can work if the other handles the talking with the family and the calls coming in, but both need enough to follow instructions and report back.
A clean US driving license, both partners. Most US briefs assume both can drive. They’ll be running errands, doing airport pickups, and moving the family between the property and town.
Real cooking ability from at least one partner. Not chef-level. We mean proper daily meals, the odd dinner party, and basic dietary things like gluten-free or low-carb. Morgan: “They’re looking for someone on the couple who can cook a very good cuisine, because this is a holiday home, so when they come for the summer they would like someone who knows how to cook.”
Five-star service training or a hotel background, ideally. Couples who came up through hotels know how to stock a pantry, get a guest suite ready, and read a room.
Comfort with everyday tech. WhatsApp, shared calendars, basic apps for scheduling and reporting. Nothing complicated. Morgan: “It can be just WhatsApp or just to fit some planning online, you know, this kind of thing.”
Working with other staff and vendors. They’ll be coordinating with a gardener, a pool guy, an alarm company, sometimes a chef or a nanny too. They need to give clear instructions and know when to call you and when to just handle it.
Personality is as important in the role as skills though.
Laurine Mallet says, “You can teach a task, but you can’t teach the personality. A domestic couple often works alone for weeks, so they must be organized, flexible, and ready to handle any job that comes up.”
Who actually works as a domestic couple in the US?
Career domestic couples in the US tend to be between 45 and 55. Most don’t have children at home, either because they never had any or because the kids are grown.
Many have been together fifteen years or more by the time they take a couple role. Some met working in service together.
Where they come from depends on where you are. Morgan: “If we’re talking about Miami, the people will come from Mexico, Cuba, this kind of country. If you’re talking about New York for example, it’s going to be more people from the US.”
Roughly:
- Florida and the Gulf coast. A lot of Latin American couples, often bilingual English-Spanish or English-Portuguese. Most have hospitality backgrounds.
- New York, Connecticut, the Hamptons. US-born couples and Eastern European couples at the top of the market. Many came up through five-star hotels.
- California. Mexican and Filipino couples make up a big part of the pool. Filipino couples are known for being flexible and good at live-in.
- The mountain markets and the Carolinas. Often US-born, sometimes coming from local hotels or estate work.
Work authorization is what stops certain nationalities being able to work. We only present couples with valid right to work in the US, and we’ll tell you upfront if the salary range and the location are going to make that hard to meet.
Frequently asked questions about hiring a domestic couple
Do domestic couples need to be married?
No. A long-term partnership matters more than a marriage certificate. We do need to see they’ve lived and worked together for at least two years.
Can a domestic couple bring children to the live-in role?
Most US clients prefer no children living on-site, mostly because of accommodation. We do place couples with children when the home has space for them. Couples without kids have more options and earn more.
Can a domestic couple manage more than one property?
Yes. About a third of the couples we place in the US handle two or more homes, usually a primary home and a vacation home in the same region.
What background checks do you run?
Full criminal background, identity verification, work authorization, driving record, and at least three reference checks per partner.
What about employment law?
Household employment law varies by state. We help you set up payroll, advise on contracts, and connect you with attorneys who handle domestic employment in your state.
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