Staff living in your home: advice on wages and how it works in practice

[FreshFreesias]

A single, childless, well-off family member is now in her late 50's and is thinking of buying a house with enough room for someone/ a couple to live in and do cooking and cleaning.

We were wondering given that the position would be all found, how much people are paid for a live-in position like this?

Back in the day it was completely normal to have live-in staff but these days it is quite unusual. I wonder how it fits in with respecting one another's privacy etc.... it probably boils down to how well the individuals get on but it all sounds potentially quite tricky.

Any thoughts or experience on this topic would be interesting.

Live-in staff are still entitled to Minimum Wage - the fact that accommodation is provided can only account for £52.85 per week at current rates. No other deductions e.g. for food or bills is allowed.

Being expected to be "on call" counts as time spent at work for minimum wages purposes so your family member would need to be strict with themselves about the pattern of "on duty" hours and protected "off duty" time when the employees can be expected to be entirely left alone. Obviously a good quality staff member would be worth way more than minimum wage but an employer who expects the staff to be on-call most of the time, and has a habit of making requests at odd hours, can find themselves technically breaching minimum wage legislation even so.

Do they have to be live in? It would probably be cheaper and easier for her to hire good quality daily housekeeping staff who have set hours.

isn't The Lady magazine the de facto place for staff positions like this?

Yes, there are still full-time maids or “lady’s companions” who advertise in publications like The Lady. That would be most likely a very traditional and formal set-up and generally a high pay expectation, especially if your relative is expecting somebody to be on-call at all hours.

How much help is she realistically needing? As a grad student, I had a live-in arrangement for a year living with an active older woman who didn’t need care but did need somebody to help with cleaning, the odd bit of DIY, shopping, some cooking, and primarily for company. In return for an en-suite bedroom in a nice part of London I did a few hours a day around my studies and was also more or less free to live my own independent life. I enjoyed it, it was like living with my grandma, I stayed in touch with her afterwards and visited regularly until she died a few years ago. I believe there are quite a few charities and agencies which coordinate this sort of arrangement.