Butler salaries in the US range from $90,000 to $180,000 a year. That’s based on data from our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report, drawn from the salaries families agreed on our placements between January 2024 and October 2025.
That works out at about $7,500 to $15,000 a month, before tax. Salary sites often show lower figures because they mix hotel and corporate butler jobs with private household roles.
But the actual cost to hire a butler depends on where you live, how experienced the candidate is, and whether the role is live-in or live-out.
Here’s what you should expect to pay.
US butler salary ranges
At the top end, the US pays butlers more than any other country in our report.
Asked what the best-paid butlers earn, Morgan Richez, our co-founder, named where the best-paid butlers work:
“In [the] US, I would say 180[,000]. New York, or it can be Palm Beach as well, or even LA.”
In our own US butler job ads since 2024, salaries started at $90,000 a year for live-in roles and went up to $200,000 for live-out ones.
The report shows the salaries families agreed when we placed someone. The ads show what families offered at the start of a search. 73% of those ads said the final salary would depend on experience.
The average butler in our database has seven years of experience.
Our salary report doesn’t split pay by gender. 23% of the butlers in our network are women, as our research on female butlers shows.
Location matters more than you think
Among our butler ads, the highest pay was in Washington, DC (from $190,000 a year), Miami and Los Angeles ($150,000 to $200,000).
The lowest were in Seattle ($110,000 to $140,000) and the live-in jobs in Texas and Florida ($90,000 to $120,000).
If you’re comparing internationally, Swiss butlers earn CHF 110,000 to 130,000 (roughly $130,000 to $156,000). UK salaries are lower, typically £50,000 to £100,000.
Live-in vs. live-out
In our butler ads in the US, the live-in jobs offered lower salaries than the live-out ones. They were $90,000 to $130,000 a year, with housing for the butler on the property, compared with $110,000 to $200,000 for live-out.
One live-in job we recruited for came with a private cottage on the property, and another with private quarters. The trade-off is that the employer provides the housing.
Live-out butlers cost more on paper but less in logistics. They look after their own housing and commute.
Morgan, our co-founder, sees the difference when families move a butler from London to New York:
“You need to increase the salary sometimes, especially when it comes to [the] US, because the US is more expensive, the lifestyle. So the family has to increase the salary to adapt to the market.
“It’s not the same price to live in London and to live in New York.
“If it’s live-in, that’s fine, because you don’t need to pay for an accommodation. But to pay [for] an apartment in Manhattan is not the same [as in the] UK.”
What else adds to the cost?
Base salary is the starting point. On top of that, you need to think about:
- Payroll taxes: as a household employer you pay 7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax on your butler’s wages, as well as federal and state unemployment tax. See the IRS household employer’s guide for 2026.
- Health cover: if you offer it, the average employer health plan cost $9,325 a year for one person in 2025, according to KFF’s employer survey.
- Benefits: 60% of our butler roles we recruited for in the US mentioned a benefits package, and 20% had health or medical cover in them.
- Housing: for a live-in butler, private accommodation on the property.
- Travel expenses: If your butler travels between properties, you cover flights, accommodation, and meals during travel.
- Relocation and bonuses: a third of our butler ads in the US (33%) offered help with relocation, and 20% offered performance or long-service bonuses.
- Recruitment fee: Agencies charge a placement fee, usually a percentage of the annual salary. Ours is 20% of the butler’s gross annual salary.
Morgan, our co-founder, also advises families on the year-end bonus many of them give the whole household:
“It’s very important to give [a] bonus… on a yearly basis.
“It’s very important to treat the people equal[ly], because even if you are the housekeeper, or chef, or chauffeur, you contribute the same like the other[s].
“I’m not talking about personal bonus[es] when it comes to performance. I’m talking [about] tips, or yearly tips, or [a] yearly bonus for the house.”
Overtime: under federal law, a live-out household employee is owed overtime after 40 hours a week.
A live-in employee doesn’t get federal overtime but must still get at least the minimum wage (US Department of Labor). Some states, like New York and California, have their own rules.
Privacy agreements can also push pay higher.
Our data shows that confidentiality requirements add 15 to 20% to base pay across all household roles. If you’re a public figure or a family that needs strict discretion, your butler might cost more.
Source: the pay and benefits in our 15 US butler job ads, 2024 to 2026 (ads posted twice counted once), and our Annual Report. How we count.
How much do butlers cost for different types of role
The cost also depends on what kind of butler you’re hiring. Here is what our butler briefs for clients in the US offered, by type of role:
| The job | Where and when | Pay in our ad |
|---|---|---|
| Butler, live-out | Washington, DC, 2025 | From $190,000 a year, with benefits |
| Butler, live-out | Miami, 2024 | $150,000 to $200,000 |
| Private butler | Santa Monica, 2024 | $150,000 to $200,000, with benefits and bonuses |
| Butler and cook | Los Angeles, 2025 | $150,000 to $200,000 for highly qualified candidates |
| Butler and valet with a lot of travel, live-out | Los Angeles, 2025 | $125,000 to $150,000, with benefits |
| Butler, live-out | Seattle, 2025 | $110,000 to $140,000 |
| Butler, live-in with private quarters | Palm Beach, 2025 | $100,000 to $130,000 gross, with benefits |
| Butler, live-in with accommodation | Texas, 2026 | $90,000 to $120,000 gross, with health insurance |
| Butler and house manager, live-in cottage | Florida, 2026 | $90,000 to $110,000 |
| Under-butler, live-out | Florida, 2025 | $40 to $50 an hour, with medical benefits |
The other briefs we worked on with clients said pay would depend on experience. Combined roles, like butler and cook or butler and house manager, can be over the whole pay range, not one bracket only.
Why the cheapest option usually isn’t
A butler paid well below the market is probably not going to stay long-term. But a bad hire is expensive. Average staff tenure in private households has dropped from 20 years to about three, according to our Annual Report.
When a butler leaves after six months, you lose the recruitment fee, the training time, and the months of building trust. Then you start over.
Our placements have a three-month guarantee. If the butler isn’t the right fit in that time, we find a replacement for free.
Morgan hears the same objection from some families:
“Sometimes the people say, ‘Oh, you know, my friend found someone for very cheap.’ And I say, ‘He’s very lucky, but this is not the market.’
“Or maybe this domestic worker [has been there] for so many years [that] he doesn’t know the market, because the market has changed a lot.”
How butler salaries compare to other household roles
To put butler costs in context, here’s how they compare with other household roles in the US, from our Annual Report:
- Private chef: $100,000 to $300,000
- Chief of staff: Up to $300,000
- Personal assistant: $80,000 to $250,000
- Estate manager: $150,000 to $250,000
- Butler: $90,000 to $180,000
- Housekeeper: $90,000 to $160,000
- Nanny: $60,000 to $120,000
Butlers are in the middle of the range. They’re more expensive than most nannies, but typically less than estate managers or private chefs at the top end.
In all 28 roles in our Annual Report, the US pays the most for 17 (60.7%) and Switzerland for 8 (28.6%).
For full salary data across every household role and region, see our Household Staff Salaries Annual Report.
So how much should you budget?
Think about the salary first, then add the costs we have set out above. Here is an example for a live-out butler on $120,000 a year:
- Salary: $120,000
- Social Security and Medicare (7.65%): $9,180 (Social Security stops at $184,500 of wages in 2026)
- Federal unemployment tax (0.6% of the first $7,000, after the usual state credit): $42
- Your state’s unemployment tax, any health cover you offer, and the placement fee
That makes the salary and federal taxes about $129,000 a year, or about $10,800 a month. Health cover for one person is about $9,325 a year on average.
Then you need to include your state’s taxes and the placement fee (20% of $120,000 is $24,000). For a live-in butler, add the cost of the accommodation you are giving them.
Morgan, our co-founder, suggests getting an adviser to work out the full cost before you hire:
“An advisor can explain the tax, the charge[s], the cost of the payroll system, the cost of… the holidays, the sick leave.
“You need to calculate this, especially in America… There [are] so many tax[es] on top of that, [and] the medical insurance as well.”
If you’re looking to hire a butler, call us on +1 917 843 5691 or get in touch through our website.
We’ll walk you through what to expect for your specific situation.
