Hiring a Caregiver Privately in New York: Who Is Actually the Employer?

This article provides general educational information about New York household-employer obligations and is not individualized legal, tax, or employment advice. Rules can change and individual circumstances vary, confirm current requirements with the NYS Department of Labor, a tax professional, or an employment attorney before making hiring decisions.

In New York, a family that hires a caregiver directly, rather than through a licensed private-pay home care agency, generally becomes that caregiver's legal employer, with real obligations: paying at least minimum wage and overtime, complying with the state's Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, withholding and paying payroll taxes, and in many cases carrying workers' compensation insurance.

The Core Question: Who Is the Employer?

It's a common assumption that hiring someone directly, through word of mouth, a classified ad, or a referral, is simpler and less “official” than going through an agency. Legally, the opposite is often true: direct hire typically makes the family the legal employer of record, with the full set of obligations that status carries, rather than transferring those obligations to an agency the way working with a licensed home care services agency does.

Wage and Hour Obligations

Minimum wage and overtime rules

Domestic workers in New York are covered by minimum wage and overtime protections. According to the NYS Department of Labor, families and their employee can agree to pay a higher rate than the state minimum, but not a lower one, and the specific minimum wage figure depends on the region of the state.

Live-in vs. live-out overtime thresholds

If a caregiver doesn't live in the employer's home, they're generally entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours in a week; if the caregiver does live in the home, the overtime threshold is generally 44 hours, an important distinction that trips up many first-time household employers.

New York's Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights

New York's Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights extends specific legal protections to domestic workers, including caregivers, covering wages, hours, and workplace protections. These protections apply regardless of a worker's immigration status.

Payroll Taxes and Withholding

Wages paid to a household employee are taxable income, and the family, as employer, generally has obligations to withhold and remit federal, state, and local employment taxes, and to provide required wage statements. This is an area where consulting an accountant familiar with household employment specifically, not a general tax preparer alone, tends to save families real trouble down the line.

Workers' Compensation Requirements

Under New York regulation, workers' compensation coverage requirements for a domestic worker depend on the specifics of the employment, notably, hours worked per week. The NYS Workers' Compensation Board is the authoritative source for confirming current requirements for a specific household employment situation.

Screening, Backup Coverage and Liability Risk

Beyond the legal wage-and-tax obligations, direct hire also puts the burden of background screening, reference checks, and backup coverage entirely on the family. If a privately hired caregiver is unavailable, illness, an emergency, simply quitting without notice, there's typically no backup system in place the way a licensed agency would provide.

Direct Hire vs. Licensed Agency: What Actually Changes

Working with a licensed home care agency shifts the employer-of-record obligations, payroll, tax withholding, workers' compensation, screening, and backup coverage, to the agency rather than the family. This is often the actual trade-off families are weighing, even when the conversation starts out sounding like it's purely about hourly cost.

What This Means for Families Weighing the Decision

More than 20 years operating as a licensed home care agency in New York has given Angels on Call Homecare a close view of exactly which employer obligations families most often don't realize they've taken on when hiring privately. Families weighing direct hire against an agency because of cost should compare the full picture, payroll administration, insurance, and backup coverage, against what a licensed agency already includes, rather than comparing hourly rates alone.