Live-in household staff in New York have to be paid for on-call hours if you can interrupt their personal time whenever you want.
Overtime begins at 44 hours a week for live-in staff, under the New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
Live-out staff get overtime after 40 hours. The minimum wage in 2026 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).
It’s one of the most misunderstood areas of household employment in New York. The rules apply at both federal and state level, they’re specific, and you might owe money if you don’t get the law right.
These rules matter most for live-in staff. If you are hiring in the city, our housekeeper agency in New York sets out what a live-in placement involves.
We have recruited butlers, nannies, domestic couples and housekeepers for New York families since 2022.
In the 40 New York job ads we ran from 2022 to 2026, 45% asked staff to work some evenings, nights, weekends or events, or to be on call, outside their set hours.
Source: our 40 New York household job ads, 2022 to 2026 (ads posted in English and French counted once). How we count.
Do you have to pay household staff for on-call time?
On-call time has to be paid if the employee can’t really use it for themselves.
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, employees who are “engaged to wait” are paid for the time, while employees “waiting to be engaged” generally aren’t.
New York’s wage order says the same thing in its own words. The minimum wage is owed for time an employee is “required to be available for work at a place prescribed by the employer” (12 NYCRR 142-2.1).
The difference is really down to how much freedom the employee has during the standby period.
This means things like whether they can leave the property, how often they get asked to work, and how far from your home they’re allowed to go.
As a general rule, the more you’re tying the employee down, the more likely you have to pay for it. Required to stay on-site? That would be paid. Needed to respond within five minutes? Probably paid.
Free to go home, watch a film, and call you back if needed? Probably not paid.
Here is how on-call time is written in real New York job briefs we’ve worked on:
- “Remaining on-call during evenings or weekends as needed, with flexibility for last-minute schedule changes.” (Personal chauffeur, New York City, 2025)
- “Must be available one night per week for evening babysitting while parents are out.” (House assistant and nanny, New York City, 2025)
- “Hours are Mon-Fri 12-8 (ideally), with overtime and after-hours support expected, including weekends and holidays.” (Executive housekeeper and house manager, Westchester, 2022)
Those parts of the job have to have an answer in the contract that gets created. Is that time paid, at what rate, and how often can it happen?
Talking about live-in couples, Morgan Richez, our co-founder, says:
“Living [in] accommodation, it’s not always an advantage. Of course, you don’t pay for the accommodation, but you are on call, quite on call.
“That can be an issue, because if something happen[s] in the property, even at 11 p.m., you are the one who live[s] in the property, so you need to do something.”
What’s the overtime rule for live-in household staff in New York?
Live-in domestic workers in New York get overtime at 1.5x the regular rate after 44 hours a week, not 40. The 44-hour threshold comes from the New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
It does more than federal law, which exempts live-in domestic workers employed by the household from overtime (US Department of Labor). Non-live-in domestic workers in New York still get overtime after 40 hours.
That changes the math on standby and sleep time. Every on-call hour you have to pay for gets added to the 44-hour weekly total.
If a live-in housekeeper works 38 “active” hours and 8 paid standby hours, she crosses the line and earns time-and-a-half for the last two.
Jobs that are live-out jobs get to overtime quicker.
A live-out housekeeper and family assistant job we recruited for in Westchester in 2026 set the hours at “approximately 45 hours per week, Monday through Friday”. So that is five hours of overtime every week.
When we worked on that brief with the client they were clear about extra hours. Babysitting after the working day would be “compensated at a premium overtime rate and performed entirely at the employee’s discretion.”
New York also has a “spread of hours” rule.
If the day of a domestic worker goes on for more than 10 hours from start to finish, including breaks and time off in between, you owe one extra hour at the minimum wage (12 NYCRR 142-2.4 and 142-2.18).
Because it’s worked out at the minimum wage, it mainly matters for staff paid at or near it. An early breakfast service or late-evening dinner on the same day is the type of work it would cover.
What is call-in pay in New York?
Call-in pay is the least amount you owe staff who come in to work because you asked them to.
Under New York’s wage order, staff who report for work “by request or permission of the employer” are paid for at least four hours at the minimum wage.
If their usual shift is shorter, it’s the length of that shift (12 NYCRR 142-2.3).
At the 2026 New York City rate, four hours at $17.00 is $68.
In our New York job briefs we worked on for clients that put in a rate of pay, 64% paid by the hour, and the lowest rate was $30.
Even then, a one-hour call-in at $30 pays less than $68, so the minimum still applies.
The day of rest counts as well. Domestic workers are owed 24 hours of rest every week. If they agree to work on that day, you have to pay overtime for those hours (New York Department of Labor).
Do I have to pay a live-in nanny for the hours she sleeps?
Not normally. New York’s wage order says a live-in employee isn’t working “during his or her normal sleeping hours solely because he is required to be on call” (12 NYCRR 142-2.1(b)).
Federal rules for live-in domestic workers let you and your nanny agree to leave sleeping time, meal times and free time out of her hours.
If the real nights are actually different, you should make a new agreement that keeps up with the changes (29 CFR 552.102).
Every time she has to get out of bed to deal with a child, those minutes are paid at her regular rate. The agreement only covers the hours she actually slept through.
The wage order has a separate rule for home care aides on shifts of 24 hours or more (12 NYCRR 142-2.1(b)). If your nanny also looks after an elderly or sick family member, ask your lawyer which rule applies.
In practice a live-in nanny on $30 an hour with a sleep agreement doesn’t get paid for the night. But if your toddler wakes her up three times for 20 minutes each, that hour gets paid at $30.
If her weekly total tips over 44 hours, the rate goes to time-and-a-half.
A search for a weekend nanny we did in New York City in 2023 shows how quickly nights can stack up.
The nanny was needed to work mainly at weekends, be on call after 5pm on weekdays, and stay overnight on some weeknights.
Is a live-in domestic couple on duty 24 hours a day?
No. A live-in domestic couple is not legally on duty around the clock just because they sleep on your property.
New York law requires real off-duty time, free from your control, even when staff live on-site: a 24-hour rest day every week. The test is whether you can interrupt their personal time whenever you feel like it.
If the couple is just sleeping in the cottage with no obligation unless something blows up, that isn’t usually paid time, as long as the contract says so clearly.
The moment they’re expected to check security systems, respond to alarms, or anything that has anything to do with your property during the night, those hours are paid standby.
Second homes make this even more important. Most of the US families we recruit couples for own more than one property.
If your estate couple keeps the Hamptons house while you’re in Manhattan for eight months a year, what are they actually doing in those months?
If they’re keeping the house live, taking deliveries, dealing with contractors and generally being the human presence on-site, that’s not really free time.
Laurine Mallet, our co-founder, says the hard part for many couples is their time off:
“When they are off, usually they need to stay, I mean to sleep in the property, to make sure about the security. That’s why the employer wanted to employ [a] domestic couple; otherwise only alarms will be [protecting the house].
“And they need to ask [their] employer.
“Some employer[s] can say, ‘Okay, it’s fine, no problem at all.’ Others can say, ‘It’s complicated. The property is going to be empty.’ So you need to talk to the employer [about it] before being employed… It’s not a surprise.”
If the couple needs to sleep in the house on their days off, make sure to say that in the contract, and ask your lawyer if those nights count as paid time.
A good contract will be clear about the daily off-duty window of time, the weekly rest day, what standby duties there are and what they pay, and the line between an emergency call (paid) and just sleeping in the cottage at night (not paid).
Do I have to pay my butler for evenings and weekends?
Evenings and weekends count as paid standby time when your butler is expected to stay on your property, stay within a short radius, or respond to your instructions outside scheduled hours.
Even informal “be around” expectations can turn into paid on-call hours in the eyes of the law. Occasional contact is one thing. A standing expectation that he’ll be available is another.
Laurine met a butler who wanted to leave a job because of this. He told her:
“They call me every time. I left twice or three times my holidays, because they ask me to come straight [away], often on Saturday, overnight. It’s fine, but it’s not rare now.
“It comes much more often, and I don’t have [a] life at all.”
Her answer is to say it at the start: “We need to let the candidates know from the beginning, because otherwise he’s going to be surprised: ‘Oh, you didn’t tell me.’”
Butler salaries in New York are at the top of the Morgan & Mallet US range.
Our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report puts butlers in the US at $90,000 to $180,000+, with New York placements at the higher end of this.
Since COVID, Laurine says, candidates ask for more time to themselves:
“[They say,] ‘We want to work maybe 40 hours a week and not more, not during the weekend,’ while in our industry you need to be very flexible. So it’s much more challenging.”
Vague expectations of when your staff should be on call aren’t just bad legally. They could also lose you the candidates you actually want.
What are the penalties for not paying on-call hours in New York?
A New York household employer who doesn’t pay on-call hours that should have been paid can face a wage claim going back six years under New York Labor Law.
Under the federal FLSA it’s two years, or three if the violation is willful (29 USC 255).
A New York court can also add liquidated damages equal to 100% of the unpaid wages, which doubles the bill (NY Labor Law 198).
These are the details. Let’s say a butler is kept on standby for two evenings a week for three hours, and those hours should have been paid at $40 an hour.
That’s $240 a week, about $12,500 a year, and about $75,000 over six years. Liquidated damages could even make that double.
Staff can complain to the New York Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards themselves.
You have to keep an accurate record of daily and weekly hours, and show it to the Department if it asks (New York Department of Labor).
What should a New York household employment contract include for on-call work?
A clear New York contract for household staff covers regular working hours, what on-call expectations are and the rate, sleep agreement terms for live-in staff, the 44-hour overtime threshold, the spread-of-hours rule, off-duty periods, and an NDA for high-profile clients.
New York also wants some of it to be in writing. When you hire, you need to give your employee a written notice of the pay rate, the overtime rate and the regular payday.
Each week, you have to give a written statement of hours worked, gross pay and deductions, and domestic workers are paid weekly (New York Department of Labor).
You need workers’ compensation insurance if your employee works at least 40 hours a week or lives in your home. Disability and Paid Family Leave cover is needed from 20 hours a week, or if they live in.
Here’s what you need to put in the contract:
- Regular working hours and a clear definition of the workweek
- Standby and on-call expectations, with hours per week and required response time
- The on-call rate, if it’s different from the regular hourly rate
- A sleep agreement for live-in employees, and the conditions that make it valid
- The overtime rate (1.5x the regular rate after 44 hours for live-in workers in New York, 40 for live-out)
- The weekly 24-hour day of rest, and the overtime rate if they agree to work it
- The spread of hours rule, for days that stretch more than 10 hours
- Off-duty periods, defining clearly when the employee is free of all work obligations
- How hours get recorded
- An NDA, layered if the family is high-profile
Something else on NDAs. Morgan & Mallet’s standard candidate contract already includes an NDA with the agency.
For high-profile clients, a second NDA gets signed directly between the candidate and the family.
Laurine explains:
“We’ve got a really important client we’ve worked with since 2019. As soon as we place someone in their property, the candidate also signs an NDA in our contract for the client.”
Two layers, one purpose: the family is protected whether or not the agency is in the loop on a future dispute.
Morgan says a contract is hard to change once the job has started:
“If you do not make a very good contract, it’s going to be very tough to change it after one or two years, because of course the employee is going to say, ‘No, no, I don’t want to change my contract.
“You are going to reduce my rights.’
“[A good contract has] of course the salary, the hours, what kind of duties you are allowed to do or not allowed to do…
“If you want to change the contract, you need to pay more money, because it was not included [in] the contract.”
We prepare the employment agreement with you, but we don’t give legal or tax advice (our recruitment process). Have a New York employment lawyer check it before it’s signed.
Can I use a payroll service instead of being the household employer myself?
Yes. A household employer-of-record service lets a third party act as the legal employer of your household staff, taking the contract, payroll, tax, and compliance work off your plate.
You get one monthly invoice instead of running US household payroll yourself. Morgan & Mallet offers this for placements in the US, UK, and France. France gets the most requests. The US is second.
How it works in the US is that the candidate is employed by Morgan & Mallet, not by you. We arrange the contract, payroll, pay slips, holidays, sickness, and all the admin involved.
You get one monthly invoice that covers everything.
When we are the employer, Laurine tells staff to bring pay and days off to us, not to the family:
“The candidate is working in the client’s property, but he shouldn’t talk to the clients about his working conditions, his salary, his day off.
“For example, ‘Oh, I would like Friday as [a] day off.’ He should talk to Morgan & Mallet, because that’s payroll.”
Extra hours should go through us too.
Morgan says the monthly report to the family has them in: “[We] say if there [are] extra hours, because it’s going to be reflected on the invoice, because we charge for that, the extra hours.”
One difference when we are the employer is that the federal overtime exemption for live-in staff only applies to a household employing its own staff, so an agency can’t use it (US Department of Labor).
Ask us how overtime is determined before the job actually starts.
This works better for private individuals than for family offices. Family offices already do this kind of admin in-house.
For a New York principal who’d rather not become a household-employment law expert, payroll-managed staff is the simplest way through the on-call rules.
What are the legal references for New York household employers?
- Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 CFR Part 785 and Part 552 (section 552.102 for live-in domestic workers). Federal rules on hours worked, on-call time, and sleep time for live-in domestic employees.
- New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. State protections including the 44-hour overtime threshold, the rest day, and paid days of rest.
- 12 NYCRR Part 142, New York’s Minimum Wage Order for Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations, which covers domestic workers: minimum wage (142-2.1), overtime (142-2.2), call-in pay (142-2.3) and spread of hours (142-2.4).
- New York Labor Law section 198: the six-year limit for wage claims and liquidated damages.
- New York Department of Labor (dol.ny.gov). State enforcement agency, with facts for employers of domestic workers.
- US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (dol.gov/agencies/whd). Federal compliance resources.
How do I hire household staff in New York the right way?
To hire household staff in New York without breaking the rules, work with an agency that deals with the search for the right candidate, the contract, and the payroll structure together.
Morgan & Mallet places household staff for families across New York City, the Hamptons, Westchester County, and the rest of the state from more than 50,300 vetted candidates.
We work out of eight offices: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, Switzerland, Antibes (near Monaco) and Dubai.
Our placement success rate on butler and nanny roles is 96%, based on the 2025/26 Annual Report.
To talk through a New York hire and the contract structure that goes with it, call Morgan & Mallet on +1 (646) 965-2308 or get in touch online.
Frequently asked questions
Is on-call time always paid at the regular hourly rate?
No.
On-call hours you have to pay for can’t drop below New York minimum wage ($17.00 an hour in NYC, Long Island and Westchester in 2026, $16.00 elsewhere), but they don’t have to match the employee’s regular rate unless your contract says so.
A lot of household contracts set a lower on-call rate for inactive standby, with active calls paid at the standard rate. The split has to be agreed in writing before the work starts.
My butler works from home. Do my evening texts count as on-call time?
They can. If your butler is expected to read messages and act on them outside his scheduled hours, even informally, a court can treat those evenings as paid on-call time. Occasional contact is one thing.
A standing expectation that he’ll be available is another. If evenings and weekends are part of the role, write them into the contract with an on-call rate and a weekly cap.
How far back can a New York household employee claim unpaid on-call wages?
Six years under New York Labor Law, against two years under the federal FLSA (three if the violation is willful). A New York court can add liquidated damages equal to 100% of the unpaid wages, which doubles the bill.
Do I need workers’ compensation insurance for my household staff in New York?
Yes, if they work at least 40 hours a week for you or live in your home. Disability and Paid Family Leave cover is required from 20 hours a week, or if they live in (New York Department of Labor).
What’s the simplest way to set up on-call hours in a household contract?
Write everything down before the job starts. Hours of standby expected per week. The rate for inactive standby. How the employee gets contacted. Response time. What tasks can be requested. And a clear definition of off-duty time.
A written, signed agreement before the work starts is the single best thing you can do to stop most disputes later.
I work in a New York household. What can I do if my on-call hours aren’t paid?
Keep your own record of the hours you were on call for and what you did during those hours. Your employer should give you a written statement of your hours and pay every week.
You can contact the New York Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards on 1-888-52-LABOR (dol.ny.gov). Claims under New York law can go back six years.
Sources: Fair Labor Standards Act (29 CFR Parts 552 and 785), New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, New York Labor Law section 198, 12 NYCRR Part 142 (CR 142, 12/25), 29 USC 255, US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, New York Department of Labor (checked 14 October 2026), Morgan & Mallet 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report, our New York job ads 2022 to 2026.
This article is general information about New York and federal household employment law as of 2026, not legal advice. Domestic worker law changes regularly. Talk to a licensed New York employment attorney before drafting a household employment contract.
