Employing Someone at Home: What the Law Requires of You

Most of what this site publishes is written for the person paying a bank, an insurer or a lender. This page is the other way round: you are the employer, and someone else's income depends on you getting it right.

If you employ a person in your home for more than a few hours a week, a specific set of legal duties attaches to you personally. They are not onerous. They are also not optional, and the first of them catches almost everyone out, because the definition of who counts is wider than people assume.

It has nothing to do with the national minimum wage, which is a separate question covered elsewhere. This is about registration, contributions, paperwork and notice — the parts that are quietly ignored until something goes wrong.

Who counts as a domestic worker

The law defines a domestic worker as an employee who performs domestic work in the home of the employer — and expressly includes:

• a gardener;
• a person employed by a household as a driver of a motor vehicle; and
• a person who takes care of any person in that home.

It excludes a farm worker.

Read that list again if you employ someone once a week to cut the grass, or a person who drives for the household, or someone who cares for a child or an elderly relative at home. All three are domestic workers in law, and the duties below apply to each of them.

The 24-hour threshold

There is one threshold that switches the contribution regime on.

The unemployment insurance contributions legislation does not apply where an employee is employed by that employer for less than 24 hours a month.

Twenty-four hours a month is a low bar — roughly six hours a week. Someone who comes one full day a week is over it. Someone who comes for two hours a fortnight is not. Below the line, no contributions are due. Above it, everything in the next section applies.

UIF: 1% from them, 1% from you

The contribution is one per cent of remuneration from the employee, withheld by you, and one per cent from you as the employer. Two per cent in total, monthly.

The 1% does not apply to remuneration above a ceiling that the Minister of Finance sets from time to time by notice. A ceiling exists; ask for the current figure rather than assuming your full wage bill is in scope, and check its effective date.

Now the part that trips up households, and it is a genuinely different rule from the one businesses follow.

You pay the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner, not SARS. The legislation carves out employers who are not required to register for PAYE, have not registered voluntarily, and are not liable for the skills development levy — which describes an ordinary household — and directs them to pay the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner not later than seven days after the end of the month. Every other employer pays SARS on the same seven-day rhythm.

Three further duties come with it:

• Register as an employer. An employer to whom the Act applies must apply for registration.
• Report monthly, before the seventh. You must submit the prescribed information about your employees each month — expressly including the appointment of any employee and the termination of any employee's employment.
• Expect consequences for lateness. The Act provides for interest on late payments and penalties on default.

That monthly reporting duty is the one people discover late. UIF is not a fund you pay into and forget: the appointment and termination entries are what let the person claim when the job ends, which is the entire point of the contributions.

The written particulars you must hand over on day one

This is the cheapest duty on the list and the most commonly skipped.

When employment commences, you must supply the employee in writing with:

your full name and address; their name and occupation or a brief description of the work; the place of work, and an indication if they work at various places; the date employment began; their ordinary hours and days of work; their wage or the rate and method of calculating it; the overtime rate; any other cash payments they are entitled to; any payment in kind and its value; how frequently they will be paid; any deductions; the leave they are entitled to; the notice period, or the termination date if the job is for a fixed period; a description of any council or sectoral determination covering the work; any period with a previous employer that counts towards their period of employment; and a list of any other documents forming part of the contract, with a reasonably accessible place to obtain each.

Three rules attach to that document:

• When anything on the list changes, the particulars must be revised and the employee given a copy of the revised document.
• If the employee cannot understand it, you must ensure it is explained in a language and in a manner that they understand.
• You must keep it for three years after employment ends.

That last one matters to you as much as to them. If a dispute arrives two years after someone leaves, the document you kept is the evidence of what was agreed.

Notice is four weeks, and sooner than you think

Here the rules for a domestic worker differ from the general position, and the difference is easy to get wrong.

The general ladder is one week's notice for six months or less, two weeks between six months and a year, and four weeks after a year. But for a farm worker or domestic worker, four weeks applies as soon as they have been employed for more than six months.

So a domestic worker at eight months is on four weeks' notice, where an office employee at eight months would be on two.

Four more rules govern how notice works:

• In writing, unless it is given by an employee who cannot write.
• Explained orally in an official language they reasonably understand, if they cannot understand the written notice.
• Not during leave, and it may not run concurrently with any leave they are entitled to — with the single exception of sick leave.
• Never longer for them than for you. No agreement may require an employee to give a longer period of notice than the employer must give.

And if you have to let someone go because the household's needs have genuinely changed rather than for anything they did, that is a dismissal for operational requirements, which carries severance of at least one week's remuneration for each completed year of continuous service.

Injury on duty: you must register too

The compensation system covers domestic workers, and it reaches ordinary households as employers.

A minimum assessment for domestic employers was prescribed at R560, with effect from 1 March 2026, by notice in the Government Gazette in April 2026. That amount is re-prescribed from time to time, so confirm the current figure with the Compensation Fund.

The reason to bother is not the fine. If the person who works in your home is hurt while doing it, a registered employer's liability runs through the compensation system. An unregistered one is exposed personally, and the injured person is left arguing with an individual instead of claiming from a fund.

A short checklist

1. Work out whether the 24-hour line is crossed, for each person, including the gardener and any driver.
2. Register as an employer for unemployment insurance, and with the Compensation Fund.
3. Write the particulars document and hand it over on the first day. Revise it whenever something changes; keep it for three years after the job ends.
4. Deduct 1% and add 1%, and pay it to the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner within seven days of month-end.
5. File the monthly information before the seventh, including anyone who started or left.
6. Give a payslip. Our payslip generator sets out the fields a payslip is required to show, and a household is not exempt from showing them.
7. Plan for four weeks' notice once someone passes six months, and remember it cannot be run off against their leave.
8. Check the current national minimum wage before setting or reviewing a wage — and check whether a sectoral determination applies, because it can sit above the national floor.

If you are doing this for a business rather than a household, the duties differ in where you pay and what else you register for — our guide to hiring your first employee covers that side. And if a disagreement becomes a dismissal dispute, how the CCMA works explains the forum, which is open to domestic workers on the same terms as anyone else.

For everything else, start at our money guides.

Frequently asked questions

Is my gardener a domestic worker? Yes. The definition expressly includes a gardener, a person employed by a household as a driver of a motor vehicle, and a person who takes care of anyone in the home. It excludes a farm worker.

Do I have to pay UIF for someone who works one day a week? The contributions legislation does not apply where the employee works less than 24 hours a month for you. One full day a week is above that, so yes.

How much is UIF? One per cent of remuneration withheld from the employee and one per cent contributed by the employer, monthly. The 1% does not apply above a ceiling set by the Minister of Finance from time to time.

Do I pay UIF to SARS? Not as an ordinary household. An employer who is not required to register for PAYE, has not registered voluntarily, and is not liable for the skills development levy pays the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner, within seven days after the end of the month.

What else must I submit each month? Before the seventh of each month, the prescribed information about your employees, including the appointment of any employee and the termination of any employee's employment.

Do I need a written contract? You must supply written particulars of employment when employment commences, covering sixteen listed items, revise them whenever any of them changes, explain them in a language the employee understands if necessary, and keep them for three years after employment ends.

How much notice must I give a domestic worker? Not less than four weeks once they have been employed for more than six months, and one week at six months or less.

Can I make notice run during their leave? No. Notice may not be given during any leave they are entitled to under the leave chapter, and may not run concurrently with it, except sick leave.

Can I require more notice from them than I give? No. No agreement may require or permit an employee to give a longer period of notice than is required of the employer.

Do I owe severance if I no longer need the help? Where the dismissal is for operational requirements, severance of at least one week's remuneration for each completed year of continuous service is payable.

What happens if they are injured at work? Domestic workers are covered by the compensation system, and domestic employers must register. A minimum assessment for domestic employers of R560 applied from 1 March 2026; confirm the current figure with the Compensation Fund.