An official website of the United States government.
Here’s how you know
Here’s how you knowThe .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Domestic workers, such as home care workers, house cleaners and nannies, provide services of a household nature in or about a private home. Get the fact sheet.
The U.S. Department of Labor has developed sample employment agreements, for illustrative purposes, for cleaners, home care workers and nannies, and translated them into seven languages: Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Haitian Creole, Nepali and Chinese.
Download the sample agreements below (clicking on the Word links will start an automatic download):
Domestic workers across the United States are doing critical work to ensure that our economy functions and our families and communities thrive. Yet while care for households, children, people with disabilities, and older adults is invaluable, domestic workers—who are disproportionately women, immigrant women and, depending on the job, disproportionately women of color—too often work in precarious conditions without formalized employment arrangements. Families employing domestic workers may have little experience as employers and may not understand their legal responsibilities, their employees’ rights, and best practices for maintaining a high-quality, healthy and safe employment environment.
In April 2023, President Biden issued the Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, which directed federal agencies to undertake the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever issued to improve care for hard-working families while supporting care workers and family caregivers. The Executive Order called on the Secretary of Labor to develop compliance assistance and best practices for domestic care workers and their employers to promote fair workplaces and ensure the parties know their rights and responsibilities.
To support this effort, the U.S. Department of Labor developed sample employment agreements, for illustrative purposes, for cleaners, home care workers, and nannies. They are a tool that both employers and domestic workers can choose to use as a helpful starting point to facilitate an open discussion about and create a shared understanding of the terms of employment. The provisions in these sample agreements are only provided as examples of the types of terms and conditions of employment that employers and employees may want to address in their own private contracts.
The use of these sample agreements is not required by law. The provisions in the sample agreements do not represent legal obligations, but instead reflect topics that employers and employees may voluntarily choose to address.
The sample agreements do not constitute legal advice by the U.S. Department of Labor and do not reflect the full range of laws that may apply in every situation, including local and state laws that may provide additional protections and requirements. Where local, state, and federal law differ, the employer must comply with the law that provides the most protections for employees. Employers should review local, state, and federal laws to ensure they are in compliance with the law that provides the most protections for employees and should include additional legal requirements as necessary in their own agreements. Parties remain independently responsible for complying with applicable law.
Numerous laws establish rights and protections that cannot be waived or abridged by private contracts. Use of an employment agreement should not be construed to waive the rights or protections of an employee under applicable federal, state, or local law. The agreement may provide rights or protections to the relevant party that are separate from federal, state, or local law. This publication is for general information to provide a voluntary resource for employers and employees and is not considered in the same light as official statements of position. The contents of these documents do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way.
Employers and workers can consider the good practices below to determine which ones are important or applicable to their employment relationship and can add to their specific agreement. Note that the good practices listed here may go beyond the requirements of local, state, and federal law. Relying on these practices is not, however, a substitute for reviewing and complying with any federal, state, and local legal requirements related to employment, employee benefits, and other terms of an agreement.
