The contract: written particulars from day one
The law does not ask for a document headed “contract”. It asks for written particulars of employment, handed over when the worker starts. Sectoral Determination 7 — the domestic worker sector’s own set of conditions — mirrors the Basic Conditions of Employment Act on this point and adds two details: you must sign the particulars, and you must keep a copy for three years after the worker leaves.
An employer must supply an employee, when the employee commences employment, with the following particulars in writing—
The items that follow in the section are, in plain terms:
What the particulars must record
- Your full name and address
- The worker’s name and what the job is
- Where the work is done
- The date employment began
- Ordinary hours and days of work
- The wage, or the rate and how it is worked out
- The overtime rate
- Any other cash payments
- Any payment in kind, such as a room, and its value
- How often the worker is paid
- Any deductions
- The leave the worker gets
- The notice period
Two follow-on duties are easy to forget. If the worker cannot read the document, you must explain it in a language they understand. And when anything on the list changes — a raise, new hours, a different day — you must update the particulars and give the worker a copy.
A one-page document that covers the list is enough. If you would rather start from something checked, the standard employment agreement below is drafted to meet section 29 and can be adapted for a household; the permanent employment contract guide walks through every item.
Pay: the minimum wage and the four-hour rule
Domestic workers earn the same national minimum wage as everyone else: R30,23 an hour from 1 March 2026. The Schedule to the National Minimum Wage Act says so in terms.
domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage of R30,23 per hour
That figure is a floor, not a starting point for negotiation. A worker cannot agree to less, and a contract that tries to pay less is overridden by the Act.
The payment of a national minimum wage cannot be waived and the national minimum wage takes precedence over any contrary provision in any contract, collective agreement, sectoral determination or law, except a law amending this Act.
The second rule catches short days. If you call a worker in for less than four hours, you pay for four. It applies to every worker earning below the earnings threshold, which is every domestic worker in practice.
(1) An employee or a worker as defined in section 1 of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2018, who works for less than four hours on any day must be paid for four hours work on that day. (2) This section applies to employees or workers who earn less than the earnings threshold
Figures last reviewed 9 September 2026.
Registrations: UIF and the Compensation Fund
Two registrations apply to a household exactly as they apply to a business. Neither is optional, and neither waits for the worker to ask.
UIF
The Unemployment Insurance Act puts the duty on every employer, from the moment it starts employing.
Every employer must, as soon as it commences activities as an employer, provide the information
Note — The subsection goes on to list the details about each employee that must be given to the Commissioner, whatever the employee earns.
The one exception is the 24-hour line. The Contributions Act does not apply to an employee who works for you for fewer than 24 hours a month.
employed by that employer for less than 24 hours a month
Above that line you pay 1% of the wage and deduct another 1% from the worker, on earnings up to R17 712 a month, and you declare the worker before the seventh of every month. Households register and declare through uFiling.
The Compensation Fund
Until 2020 the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act excluded domestic workers from cover for injuries at work. The Constitutional Court held that exclusion unconstitutional, and made the order reach back to the start of the constitutional era.
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Note — The Court's first sentence describes the people the case was about. The Act has since been amended, and its definition of employee no longer carries a domestic-worker exclusion.
The practical result: a household that employs a domestic worker must register with the Compensation Fund, file a return of earnings each year, and report any accident at work within seven days.
An employer carrying on business in the Republic shall within the prescribed period and in the prescribed manner register with the Commissioner
Register when you start employing. The Act itself fixes one early deadline: a new employer’s estimate of earnings is due within seven days of starting.
within seven days after such commencement furnish the Commissioner with a return
The assessment for a domestic employer is small: the Fund’s minimum assessment for households is R560 a year from 1 March 2026. Registration and returns are done through the Fund’s online portal.
| Registration | When | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| UIF | As soon as you start employing, if the worker does 24 hours or more a month; declare monthly by the 7th | 1% from you plus 1% from the worker, on earnings up to R17 712 a month |
| Compensation Fund | When you start employing; earnings estimate within seven days; annual return of earnings | Minimum assessment R560 a year for domestic employers |
| SARS (PAYE) | Only if the worker earns enough to be liable for income tax — most domestic workers do not | Tax withheld from the wage; no cost to you beyond the admin |
The registrations and returns guide covers each step in order, with the forms and portals.
Hours, leave and notice
On everything the sectoral determination does not deal with, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act applies to a domestic worker exactly as it does to any other employee. The floor, in short:
- Hours: no more than 45 ordinary hours a week; overtime only by agreement, no more than ten hours a week, paid at one and a half times the normal rate.
- Annual leave: 21 consecutive days a year on full pay, or one day for every 17 days worked.
- Sick leave: over a three-year cycle, the number of days the worker would normally work in six weeks; in the first six months, one day for every 26 days worked.
- Family responsibility leave: three days a year after four months’ service, for a child’s birth or illness or a close family member’s death.
- Maternity leave: four consecutive months.
Notice is where domestic workers get a special rule. Most employees only reach four weeks’ notice after a year; a domestic worker reaches it after six months.
Subject to section 38, a contract of employment terminable at the instance of a party to the contract may be terminated only on notice of not less than— (a) one week, if the employee has been employed for six months or less; (b) two weeks, if the employee has been employed for more than six months but not more than one year; (c) four weeks, if the employee— (i) has been employed for one year or more; or (ii) is a farm worker or domestic worker who has been employed for more than six months.
Notice is not the same as a fair reason. Giving four weeks’ notice does not by itself make a dismissal fair; a domestic worker can refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA like any other employee.
Live-in workers and deductions
Sectoral Determination 7 permits a deduction of no more than 10% of the wage for a room you supply, and only if the room is weatherproof and in good condition, has at least one window and a door that lock, and has a toilet and a bath or shower where the worker has no other bathroom. A repayment of money you have lent the worker may also be deducted, but not more than one-tenth of the wage on any pay day. Any other deduction needs the worker’s written agreement to a specific debt, as it does for every employee.
Under 24 hours a month: what still applies
The 24-hour line does a lot of work in this sector. Below it, Sectoral Determination 7 says only its minimum wage clauses apply; the BCEA’s chapters on working time, leave and particulars switch off; and the UIF Acts do not apply. What remains:
- the national minimum wage of R30,23 an hour, for every hour worked;
- the four-hour minimum in section 9A, for every day worked;
- protection against unfair dismissal — the person is still an employee under the Labour Relations Act;
- Compensation Fund cover, which has no hours threshold.
Written particulars are still worth giving even below the line: they settle the day, the hours and the rate before there is a disagreement about them. The part-time and casual work guide explains the 24-hour rule across all sectors, and the which contract do I need? tool routes a household worker to the right document in a few questions.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. One full working day a week is about 35 hours a month, which is above the 24-hour line in the Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act. You register as an employer, declare the worker monthly and pay 1% of the wage, with another 1% deducted from the worker. Only a worker who does fewer than 24 hours a month for you falls outside UIF — see registrations.
A room, yes, within limits: Sectoral Determination 7 allows a deduction of up to 10% of the wage for accommodation, and only if the room meets the standard the determination sets (weatherproof, a lockable window and door, access to a toilet and bath or shower). Meals, no: the national minimum wage is calculated in money for the hours worked, and payments in kind such as food do not count towards it.
Yes. Domestic workers were excluded from the Compensation Fund until the Constitutional Court struck the exclusion down in Mahlangu v Minister of Labour in 2020, with effect back to 27 April 1994. The Act has since been amended to match. A household employer registers, files a return of earnings each year and pays the assessment; the minimum assessment for domestic employers is R560 a year.
One week during the first six months of employment, and four weeks after six months. Domestic workers get to four weeks faster than most employees, who only reach it after a year of service. The worker cannot be made to give you more notice than you must give them, and notice must be in writing.