Hiring Household Employees
You have a household employee if you hired someone to do household work and that worker is your employee. The worker is your employee if you can control not only what work is done, but how it is done. If the worker is your employee, it does not matter whether the work is full time or part time or that you hired the worker through an agency or from a list provided by an agency or association. It also does not matter whether you pay the worker on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, or by the job.
Household work is work done in or around your home by the following people:
- Babysitters
- Caretakers
- Cleaning people
- Domestic workers
- Drivers
- Health aides
- Housekeepers
- Maids
- Nannies
- Private nurses
- Yard workers
Workers Who Are Not Your Employees
If only the worker can control how the work is done, the worker is not your employee but is self-employed. A self-employed worker usually provides his or her own tools and offers services to the general public in an independent business.
A worker who performs child care services for you in his or her home generally is not your employee. If an agency provides the worker and controls what work is done and how it is done, the worker is not your employee.
Example
You made an agreement with John Peters to care for your lawn. John runs a lawn care business and offers his services to the general public. He provides his own tools and supplies, and he hires and pays any helpers he needs. Neither John nor his helpers are your household employees.
U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Information. (2014, March). Hiring a contractor. Retrieved September 4, 2019, from https://www.consumer.ftc.gov