Live-in Household Staff in the US: a Plain-English Guide to the Rules, Contracts, and Taxes

Laws and figures checked on 15 October 2026: US federal law and the rules in New York, California, Florida, Texas, Illinois and Massachusetts, plus Morgan & Mallet’s own job ads and placement data.

In summary, live-in staff have to get at least minimum wage for every hour they work. Federal overtime doesn’t apply to live-in staff when you employ them directly, but some states do have it.

You will owe payroll taxes after you pay $3,000 in 2026, and for the rest, the contract, the room and your state are the deciding factor.

Hiring someone to live in your home and work for you is not the same as hiring a contractor or a part-time cleaner. Most families we work with at Morgan & Mallet understand pay.

Far fewer understand the rest of the picture. This guide walks through it.

What counts as a “live-in” household employee in the US?

A live-in domestic employee is someone you hire to work in your home who also lives there as part of the job.

That can mean a room in the main house, a staff apartment, or a separate cottage on the property.

Federal law counts someone as live-in if they live, work and sleep in your home seven days a week, or five days a week (120 hours or more), even if they have another home (US Department of Labor).

Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, explains why it’s a different relationship from an office job:

“If [someone] comes to my place and lives with me, it’s completely different, because she’s going to see me at dinner with my family, with whatever. So the relationship is completely different.

“We are like roommates. It’s not roommate, of course, I am the employer, but quite [that] kind of [thing].”

Domestic service, in federal law, is work “of a household nature performed by an employee in or about a private home”. That works for nannies, housekeepers and cooks as well as butlers, caretakers, gardeners and family chauffeurs (29 CFR 552.3).

The definition matters because it changes which rules apply. The Fair Labor Standards Act, the IRS, and most state labor agencies each have their own way of treating live-in staff, and they do not always agree.

The roles Morgan & Mallet places into live-in positions most often in the US are butlers, house managers, housekeepers, private chefs, nannies, governesses, domestic couples, and estate managers. The legal rules are the same for all of them.

Among the families we work with there is a mix on this.

In the 465 job briefs in our US household staffing trends report (May 2022 to June 2026), 39.6% were for live-in staff, 32.5% for live-out, and 28.0% were open to either.

Does federal labor law apply to live-in staff?

Yes. Federal minimum wage law applies to a domestic worker you pay at least $3,000 in 2026, or who works for more than 8 hours a week in total for one or more households (29 USC 206(f)).

So any full-time live-in is covered from when they start their job with you.

As soon as you pay $3,000 in 2026, you’re also a household employer for IRS purposes (IRS Publication 926 covers the rules for household employers).

The FLSA does give live-in staff one exception, which is you don’t have to pay federal overtime to a domestic worker who lives in your home. This is the most misunderstood rule in private staffing.

It only applies though when the household itself is the employer. An agency or employer of record can’t use it, so when we employ your staff, federal overtime applies after 40 hours a week (US Department of Labor).

If your employee only stays over some nights and doesn’t meet the live-in test above, full overtime rules come into force.

Minimum wage is not waived. The federal floor is $7.25 an hour. Most of the states we work in have a minimum wage that is higher (Texas doesn’t), and some cities are higher again.

Live-in staff need to be paid for every hour they work, and you have to keep a record of the exact hours (29 CFR 552.110).

There’s a second federal rule worth knowing about, which is sleep time. For live-in staff, you and your employee can agree to leave sleeping time, meal times and free time out of their paid hours (29 CFR 552.102).

Every time they’re called out of bed to work, that time is paid. If the real nights become different from the agreement, it’s important to make a new one that is updated with them.

The US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division publishes the full rules. New York has its own sleep-time rule. Our guide to on-call and sleep-time pay in New York explains it.

Why state law usually matters more than federal law

State law has its own minimum wage, overtime, rest-day and insurance rules on top of federal law, and the differences are quite large.

That changes how to comply with it in ways most families don’t know about until they get a complaint about wages.

It also makes finding the right legal help harder than it should be, as Morgan, our co-founder, says:

“Even if they found a lawyer, the lawyer [is] not specialize[d] on the domestic workers. It doesn’t exist.”

Here’s how six states where our clients have homes compare (checked 15 October 2026):

New York

New York has some of the strongest protections for domestic workers in the country. The state’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights overrides the federal live-in overtime exemption.

Live-in staff in New York are entitled to time-and-a-half after 44 hours a week.

A few other rules as well. At least one day off a week (24 hours), paid at overtime if worked. Three paid days of rest a year after one year of service.

State minimum wage is $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $16.00 in the rest of the state (New York Department of Labor).

Paid sick leave is something that is separate. Under state law, domestic workers can earn up to 40 hours a year.

This is paid if the household has five or more employees or more than $1 million net income (New York State).

In New York City, domestic workers get up to 40 hours of paid leave whatever the household’s size or income is, plus 32 hours of unpaid time off from the first day (NYC rules, updated February 2026).

You need to pay domestic workers each week, and give a written notice of the pay rate, overtime rate and payday when you first employ them (New York Department of Labor).

California

California is the strictest state in the country for household staff.

Live-in workers need to get at least 12 hours off duty in every 24, overtime for hours worked over nine in a day, and extra pay on a sixth or seventh day in a row.

Personal attendants, who mainly look after a child, an elderly person, or someone with a disability, get overtime after nine hours a day or 45 hours a week (California Labor Commissioner).

State minimum wage is $16.90 ($17.40 from 1 January 2027), with many cities higher (DIR).

Workers’ comp covers a household employee once they’ve worked 52 hours and earned $100 for you in 90 days, which a full-time live-in reaches in the first week.

California also publishes yearly caps on what you can credit for meals and lodging (Wage Order 15).

Florida, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts

Florida and Texas mainly follow federal rules. Neither has a domestic workers’ bill of rights. But Florida’s own minimum wage is $15.00 an hour since 30 September 2026 (Florida Constitution).

Texas uses the federal $7.25, and its state wage law doesn’t cover domestic work (Texas Labor Code 62). Florida has no state income tax, which changes the take-home calculation for staff.

In Illinois, overtime has to be paid after 40 hours a week, live-in or not (Illinois Department of Labor). In Chicago every domestic worker needs to have a written contract, since 1 January 2022 (City of Chicago).

Massachusetts has the most detailed live-in rules of these six. Domestic workers working 16 or more hours a week need to have an agreement in writing.

If you end a live-in job without cause, you give written notice and either 30 days’ housing or two weeks’ severance pay (Massachusetts Attorney General).

Live-ins are owed state minimum wage ($15.00) and overtime. The Attorney General has fined families for not paying both (Massachusetts Attorney General).

Staff who work 40+ hours a week get 24 hours off each week and 48 hours off each month.

Domestic workers also earn sick time under the state’s Earned Sick Time law (paid if you have 11 or more employees).

For families with homes in more than one state, the work usually follows the law of the state where it’s done, not where the employer lives.

If your housekeeper does ten weeks a year in California, California rules could come into force for those ten weeks. This is a question for your lawyer.

What kind of accommodation do you have to provide?

No single federal rule sets out exact specs for staff housing, but state rules have the same minimum. It has to be safe, private, and decent.

California needs employers to provide lodging that is “adequate, decent, and sanitary” and never a shared bed (Wage Order 15). Massachusetts only allows a housing charge if it meets health codes (Massachusetts Attorney General).

Our own job ads in the US show what families offer. Of our 80 live-in ads in the US from 2022 to 2026, 22.5% described the housing.

More than half of those (55.6%) offered a separate space, a private apartment, suite, cottage or staff quarters. The rest gave a private bedroom, usually with its own bathroom.

Here are some sections from those ads:

• “Accommodation: Own bedroom with own bathroom.” (Live-in housekeeper, Texas, 2022)
• “Own room with a bathroom. Extra storage place can be provided.” (Live-in nanny, Las Vegas, 2022)
• “Private tiny home available for live-in accommodation if desired.” (Nanny, Oregon, 2025)

Source: our 80 US live-in job ads, 2022 to 2026 (ads posted in English and French counted once). How we count.

Laurine Mallet, our other co-founder, remembers a couple who were asked to share a staff apartment:

“I got a client for whom I placed a couple, and the couple needed to share the accommodation, the apartment, [with a single man]. And I said to the owner straight from the beginning, ‘It won’t work.’

“Obviously, it’s a couple, they’ve got their intimacy, and you’ve got a single man.

“And as soon as they chose [the] domestic couple, the couple said, ‘I want the employer to make some work and to put [up] a wall.’ … And [that’s] what they did, and they stayed four years in the property.”

Let us know exactly what the accommodation is, including its size, the bathroom, and whether a partner can live there too. Only then will we shortlist for you candidates it suits.

What we recommend, and what good candidates expect:

• A private room with a door that locks from the inside
• Heating in winter and cooling in summer
• A bathroom the employee doesn’t have to share with the family
• Natural light and ventilation
• Furniture, bedding, and basic utilities

The contract should also cover what the employee can and can’t do in their space. Our live-in vs live-out housekeeper guide goes through the accommodation clauses in more detail.

Can you take rent out of someone’s salary?

You can credit the value of housing against minimum wage obligations, but only under specific conditions. The employee has to accept the accommodation voluntarily, and some states also have to have it in writing.

The deduction also cannot push effective pay below the applicable state minimum wage.

If you pay a live-in housekeeper a weekly salary and take $200 off for housing, and that drops her hourly rate below state minimum, the deduction is unlawful.

California needs a voluntary written agreement and the credit is capped in dollars.

In 2026, a room for one person is up to $79.46 a week, and an apartment up to two thirds of its rental value, with a top limit of $954.43 a month (Wage Order 15).

Massachusetts is more strict again. You can’t charge for housing at all if you need the worker to live there.

If they choose to live there, the most you can charge is $35 a week for a room for one (Massachusetts Attorney General).

Other states have their own rules. Always confirm with an employment attorney in the state where the property is.

What needs to be in a live-in employment contract?

A verbal agreement is not enough. Massachusetts needs a written agreement for domestic workers on 16 or more hours a week, and Chicago wants you to have a written contract for every domestic worker.

New York must have a written pay notice when you hire. Even in states that don’t, going without one is a serious liability.

The contract should cover:

• Full names and the property address. All of them, if the role covers multiple homes (Manhattan, the Hamptons, Aspen, Palm Beach).
• Job title and duties. Specific. “Helps around the house” could be a future dispute. List primary duties, secondary duties, and what’s excluded.
• Start date and trial period. If the notice period differs during the trial, write that down.
• Working hours. This is where most contracts fall short. Include normal hours, days off, and any on-call expectations. Also cover sleep time, if relevant, and how interruptions are paid.
• Compensation. Base pay, overtime rate where it applies, pay frequency (New York needs weekly pay for domestic workers), payment method, and any agreed deductions in writing.
• Accommodation terms. A standalone section covering the room itself, what’s included (furniture, utilities, internet, parking), any credit applied to wages, the employer’s right of access, and what happens to the accommodation when the job ends.
• Meals and benefits. Health insurance, PTO, sick days, paid holidays, and travel pay if the role moves between properties.
• A separate NDA. Standard for HNW and UHNW households. It should cover personal information, finances, schedules, guests, and social media. Have it drafted or reviewed by an employment attorney.
• Termination. Notice period, what counts as cause, severance where required, and the timeline for vacating the staff accommodation.
• Governing law. Which state’s law applies. For multi-property households, you could need separate provisions or addenda for each state.

In New York, time when staff must be available at a place you choose has to be paid, but a live-in isn’t working during normal sleeping hours just for being on call.

In Massachusetts, a live-in let go without cause gets 30 days’ housing or two weeks’ severance pay.

Morgan, our co-founder, gives families this example of dealing with the room when a job ends:

“Your contract is going to be terminated on the 1st of February, but I will leave you one month to leave the property, even if your contract is finished, to leave you enough time to find another job or accommodation.

“[It’s a] very tricky question, the accommodation. You can’t fire someone and say, ‘Okay, you’re on the street the next day.’”

What taxes do you owe as a household employer?

If you pay a household employee $3,000 or more in 2026, you have tax obligations. The IRS treats you as a household employer, and the colloquial “nanny tax” applies to every household role, not just nannies (IRS Publication 926).

To pay a live-in employee legally:

• Get an employer identification number (EIN) for your forms.
• Register with your state for unemployment tax, and disability tax where it applies.
• Complete Form I-9 with your employee, plus a Form W-4 if you agree to withhold income tax.
• Report the new hire to your state if it asks household employers to.
• Pay through payroll, then file Schedule H with your Form 1040 and give a W-2 by 31 January (1 February 2027 for 2026 wages).

If you’ve been paying someone off the books, talk to a tax adviser before you start. The rules are in IRS Publication 926.

The federal part:

• FICA (Social Security and Medicare): 7.65% from the employer plus 7.65% withheld from the employee. Social Security (6.2%) stops at $184,500 of wages in 2026. If the employee earns over $200,000, an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax comes from their pay.
• FUTA (federal unemployment): 6% on the first $7,000 of wages, but state unemployment credits usually bring the effective rate down to 0.6%. It applies once you pay $1,000 or more in cash wages in a calendar quarter.
• Federal income tax withholding: Not legally required for household employees, only if your employee asks and you agree. It’s still standard practice. Without it, your employee gets a big bill at year-end, which causes friction.

Everything federal gets reported on Schedule H, filed with your personal Form 1040. You issue a W-2 by January 31 the following year (1 February 2027 for 2026 wages) and file the W-3 with the Social Security Administration.

Not doing any of this attracts penalties, back taxes, and interest, and has derailed more than one political nomination.

The state part:

• State unemployment insurance: A requirement in most states. Rates vary.
• State disability insurance: California, New York, and New Jersey require it. In California you withhold it once cash wages reach $750 in a quarter (EDD).
• Workers’ comp: rules differ by state (see the table above). Florida and Texas make it optional for private households, but carrying it is a far smaller cost than one uninsured injury claim.

If childcare is a real part of the role, a Dependent Care FSA can offset up to $7,500 a year pre-tax from 2026 (IRS Publication 15-B), and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit can offset some of the cost.

These do not apply to butlers, chefs, or housekeepers unless the role is genuinely focused on childcare.

Morgan & Mallet runs US household payroll for clients who would rather not deal with this in-house, alongside services in the UK and France.

The candidate is employed through Morgan & Mallet, the client receives one monthly invoice covering salary, taxes, insurance, and admin, and the legal employer responsibility is with us. Setup takes around two days once a candidate is chosen.

Morgan, our co-founder, says the US is where we take the most care with payroll:

“In [the] US we must respect the process, because, I don’t know if I can say that, the people [are] going to the court for nothing in [the] US.

“So that’s why we need to be extra careful, especially for the payroll services.

“When we employ domestic worker[s] for our clients, we need to make sure, especially for this country, that everything is done properly.”

Morgan won’t recruit for a job paid off the books:

“When it comes [to], ‘I would like to pay my domestic workers in cash,’ we say no, we can’t [work] this way at all.

“At Morgan & Mallet we target only the best candidate[s] in the world, and of course, if you are the best candidate in the world, you won’t ac[cept] this kind of job.

“You need an official job, with a proper contract, with a pay slip.”

What does live-in staff actually cost in the US?

Based on Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report, gross salary ranges in the US are:

• Butler: $90,000 to $180,000+
• Housekeeper: $90,000 to $160,000+
• Private chef: $100,000 to $300,000+
• Estate manager: $150,000 to $250,000+
• Nanny: $60,000 to $120,000+
• Governess: $70,000 to $130,000+
• Domestic couple: at least $150,000 combined, per Morgan’s experience placing in the US market

These are the salaries families agreed on our placements in the US from January 2024 to October 2025. The report doesn’t separate live-in from live-out.

The full cost is higher. Here’s the federal part for two salaries:

• A live-in housekeeper on $100,000: Social Security and Medicare (7.65%) add $7,650 and federal unemployment $42 in most states, so about $107,700 a year.
• A live-in estate manager on $200,000: Social Security stops at $184,500 ($11,439), Medicare adds $2,900 and federal unemployment $42, so about $214,400 a year.

Then add on top your state’s unemployment and disability taxes, workers’ comp, any health cover you offer, and the cost of the accommodation.

Our Annual Report also found that privacy agreements add 15 to 20 percent to base pay across roles, and 77% of our LA personal assistant placements come with an NDA.

The US pays the most of any country for 17 of the 28 roles in the report (60.7%). It is also the most legally demanding market in which to hire.

What if your live-in staff travel between properties?

Lots of staff do this. In 32.5% of our 80 live-in job ads in the US, the family said the staff needed to travel with them or work in different homes.

Two sections from those ads are here:

• “Travel with the family between homes in Oregon, Florida, and Mexico as needed.” (Nanny, Oregon, 2025)
• “Willingness to travel with the family domestic & international.” (Live-in nanny, Los Angeles, 2024)

In the Hamptons specifically, this is the way it works. Laurine, our co-founder, describes it:

“All year long they’ve got maybe [a] security guard and housekeeping services, but in July they will need drivers, [a] cook, [a] chef, much more housekeepers, maybe nannies if they have children… Maybe during Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas also.”

Morgan says leaving the search until summer makes it much harder:

“If you ask me… [for] a housekeeper in the Hamptons… in the middle of summer, this is not easy, because between New York and the Hamptons the traffic is very high, and this is [a] very busy time.

“All the domestic workers are employed already.

“… The possibilities reduce a lot. To find a good candidate in the middle of the peak season is going to be tricky for the recruiter.”

True traveling staff are also rare. From our Annual Report, only 2.36% of nannies in our database can do rotational work, and only 4.82% travel regularly.

If you need someone genuinely mobile across multiple US homes plus international travel, expect a longer search and a salary premium.

State labor law can come into force wherever the work happens, not only where the employer lives or where the contract was signed.

Ask your lawyer which state’s rules apply to a long stay in a second home. Workers’ comp needs to cover every state the employee works in.

Most policies cover travel, but extended stays in a second state can need a separate endorsement.

Unemployment insurance obligations can happen in more than one state at once.

When staff move to the US from another country, Morgan’s general rule is to make a new contract:

“You are [a] butler in [the] UK, you move permanently [to the] US. We need to switch the contract, because you can’t keep a UK contract to work in [the] US. …

“If you spend more than six months in the US, you need to have a proper US contract.”

This is a standard pattern for HNW families. It needs active management.

Where families most often get this wrong

Most compliance failures aren’t intentional. They come from treating a household employee like a contractor.

• Classifying a live-in employee as an independent contractor. They’re almost never a contractor under IRS or state tests. You control the work, the schedule, and the location. This could make you liable to back taxes, penalties, and state audits.
• Skipping workers’ comp. One on-the-job injury without coverage costs many times the premium.
• Not keeping hours and wage records. Federal wage law asks for three years, the IRS four, and New York six. For live-ins, record the exact hours worked.
• No written contract. Accommodation, on-call obligations, NDA scope, termination terms, all of it becomes a disputed fact. In Massachusetts and Chicago, the missing contract is itself a violation.
• Not updating contracts when terms change. If the salary goes up, a second property gets added, or the duties shift, the contract needs an addendum in writing. Verbal changes don’t hold up.
• Treating the legal risk like a UK or European one. In the US, the reputation cost can outweigh the legal cost.

“In [the] US, if the media talk about a domestic worker case in your property, even if it’s not true… your image is destroyed. Doesn’t matter if it’s right or not,” Morgan says.

Clean contracts, payroll handled at arm’s length, and properly drafted NDAs protect against the reputational side as much as the legal one.

Laurine’s advice to both sides of a live-in job:

“First of all, stay in your place. It’s not because they [are] living in your property [that he] is going to be your friend. Don’t forget [he] is your employee.

“[And] for the employee: don’t talk too much about your private life to your boss, because as you are living in the same property, it’s like there is no boundary, and you can talk about everything.”

What good looks like

Three pieces tend to be in place when a US household hire works long-term. An employment attorney for the state where the property is. A payroll provider that handles household employment (Morgan & Mallet does this).

An agency that understands the legal side as well as the candidate search.

Morgan & Mallet places live-in household staff across New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and other US markets from more than 50,300 vetted candidates.

We successfully place 96% of nannies and butlers, according to our Annual Report. Every candidate goes through a 90-minute structured interview and a full background check.

We spend at least an hour on the phone with every new client up front. The questions that matter for a live-in role are often the ones the family hasn’t thought to ask yet.

Who pays for internet and electricity in the staff quarters. How on-call hours are counted. What notice the employee gets to vacate.

How the salary needs to look in a state with no income tax versus one with the highest in the country.

We are not lawyers, and we don’t give legal or tax advice (our recruitment process). We will prepare the employment agreement with you, and your employment attorney then checks it.

To start a search for live-in household staff in the US, call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or get in touch online.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to pay overtime to a live-in household employee in the US?

Under federal law, no, as long as the employee lives in your home and you are the employer (an agency employer can’t use this exemption). But some states override that. In New York, overtime starts after 44 hours a week.

In California, after nine hours a day, or for personal attendants nine hours a day or 45 a week. Illinois and Massachusetts pay it after 40. Always check the state where the work happens.

Can I deduct accommodation from my employee’s salary?

Yes, under specific conditions. The employee has to accept the room voluntarily, and the deduction cannot drop their effective pay below state minimum wage. California needs you to have a written agreement and caps the credit in dollars.

Massachusetts doesn’t allow a charge at all if you need the worker to live in.

What taxes do I owe if I hire a live-in housekeeper?

The same as any household employee. Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax and a W-2, reported on Schedule H with your Form 1040.

Then state unemployment, state disability where it applies, and workers’ comp, paid to the state or your insurer.

Is a live-in nanny a household employee for tax purposes?

Yes. The IRS treats nannies as household employees. All nanny tax rules apply.

What happens if I don’t have a written contract?

In Massachusetts (16+ hours a week) and Chicago you’re already breaking the law.

In New York you still need a written pay notice. Everywhere else, not having a contract makes accommodation, hours, NDA scope, and termination terms disputable based on what the employee says. We don’t recommend hiring without one.

What if my staff travel with me to another state?

That state’s wage and hour rules may apply for the time they work there. Ask your lawyer before a long stay. Workers’ comp should cover multi-state work or be supplemented with an endorsement.

This article gives general information about US household employment law as of 15 October 2026 and is not legal advice. Employment law varies state by state and changes regularly.

Talk to a licensed employment attorney in your state before you draft contracts or set up payroll.

Sources: IRS Publications 926 and 15-B; US Department of Labor Fact Sheet 79B; 29 USC 206; 29 CFR 552; New York Department of Labor; New York State and NYC sick leave rules; California Labor Commissioner and Wage Order 15; Florida Constitution; Texas Labor Code; Illinois Department of Labor; City of Chicago; Massachusetts Attorney General (all checked 15 October 2026); our Annual Report and US trends report.