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, then it does not matter whether the work is full time or part time nor that you hired the worker through an agency or from a list provided by an agency or an association. It also does not matter whether you pay the worker on an hourly, daily, weekly or by the job.

Example. You pay Betty Shore to babysit your child and do light housework 4 days a week in your home. Betty follows your specific instructions about household and childcare duties. You provide the household equipment and supplies that Betty needs to do the work. Betty is your household employee.

Household work. Household work is work done in or around your home. Some examples of workers who do household work are:

• Babysitters
• Caretakers
• Cleaning people
• Domestic workers
• Drivers
• Health aides
• Housekeepers
• Maids
• Nannies
• Private nurses
• Yard workers

Household work doesn't include services performed by these workers unless the services are performed in or around your private home. A separate and distinct dwelling unit maintained by you in an apartment house, hotel, or other similar establishment is considered a private home. Services not of a household nature, such as services performed as a private secretary, tutor, or librarian, even though performed in your home, aren't considered household work.

Workers who are not Your rmployees. If only the worker can control how the work is done, then the worker is not your employee but is a self-employed worker. A self-employed worker usually provides his or her own tools and offers services to the general public as 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, then 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, provides his own supplies, hires any workers he needs, and pays any helpers he needs. Neither John nor his helpers are your household employees.