The Housekeeper Works 42 Hours a Week. Your Homeowners Policy Isn't Her Insurance.
New York requires workers' comp for household staff at 40+ hours a week. Your homeowners policy won't cover it. Here's how to close the gap.
If your housekeeper, nanny, driver or house manager works 40 hours a week for your household, New York law says you need a workers' compensation policy for her. Your homeowners policy does not count, and the gap between those two facts is where a single fall on a wet staircase turns into a six-figure problem you pay for personally.
Who counts as a domestic employee, and why the 1099 argument fails
New York's Workers' Compensation Board defines domestic workers as people employed in a private household: chauffeurs, nannies, home health aides, nurses, au pairs, maids, cooks, housekeepers, laundry workers, butlers, companions and gardeners. The label on the paperwork does not decide it. Control does. If you set the schedule, direct the work and supply the equipment, she is your employee whether you pay her through an agency invoice, a cash envelope or a 1099.
Here's what most people don't know: the 40 hours are not just hours spent in your kitchen. The Board counts time spent on errands for you and any time you require her presence, including time on call. A weekend away where she stays to watch the house can add up to 48 hours on its own.
Household employers also tend to hold more than one role. The housekeeper, the nanny, the part-time driver and the gardener each get measured against the threshold separately, but they all sit on your household's exposure.
New York's 40-hour trigger, Connecticut's rules, and what a miss costs
New York requires coverage for a domestic worker employed 40 or more hours a week by the same employer. Coverage is generally not required when every household worker puts in fewer than 40 hours and none of them live on the premises. A live-in changes that math.
Connecticut sets a lower bar. As far as we can verify, the state requires coverage when a household employee regularly works 26 or more hours a week, so a 30-hour Fairfield County nanny falls under the rule where a 30-hour Westchester nanny does not. Connecticut has debated replacing the hours test with a pay test, so confirm the current rule with your broker before you rely on either number.
Penalties for missing coverage are real. One household employer reported a New York Board penalty of $37,000 for going without a policy, reduced only after proving the worker hit 40 hours in some weeks and not others. The fine is the smaller risk. An uninsured employer can also owe the injured worker's medical bills and lost wages directly.
What your homeowners policy covers, and what it excludes
Your homeowners policy covers the house and your liability to visitors. It was not built to cover the people who work in it. The liability section carries a standard exclusion for bodily injury to an employee of the insured arising out of the job. The small medical payments coverage skips people injured while working for you and regular residents of the home.
Some policies offer a residence-employee endorsement. The limits are usually low, in the range of a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dollars, and they do not replace a workers' compensation policy. New York says so directly: domestic workers are not covered by the workers' compensation rider on a homeowners policy.
A personal umbrella does not fill the gap either. It protects you from third-party claims. It does not pay your employee's medical bills or lost wages.
How private carriers bundle the coverage
Preferred-tier and private carriers that write high-value homes often sell domestic workers' compensation alongside the home policy, sometimes with employment practices liability coverage for wage, termination and discrimination claims and sometimes with disability benefits. You get one bill and one carrier that already knows the household.
That arrangement works because the structural gap is easy to see from the carrier side. The home policy was never meant to be an employer policy, and a bundle closes the gap without making you shop for it. This is a conversation with your broker, not an alarm. Ask whether your carrier or broker offers a household employment package, what it costs, and whether it includes disability and employment practices coverage.
Seasonal and second-home staff
The 40-hour test counts per employer, so a property caretaker who works 20 hours at your primary home and 25 at your second house is one employee with 45 hours on your payroll. Check that math before you assume neither location triggers the rule.
Holiday staffing is the other blind spot. The cook who joins for November and December, the extra housekeeper for the weeks of house guests and the driver who steps in for the season can each push you over a threshold you were comfortably under in September. Add them to your list before they start, not after.
The household staffing record your broker will ask for
Brokers get the same two questions every time: who works in the household, and for how many hours? Write the answers down once and keep them current. For each person, record the role, the typical weekly hours, whether they live on the property, whether they drive your vehicles or run your equipment, and the dates they work at each address.
This is where Rafter fits for homeowners with staff and multiple properties. A Rafter assessment captures the household profile alongside the condition of the home itself: who works on the property, in what roles and how often, plus the vehicles and equipment on site. The record sits next to your maintenance history and protective-device documentation, so the broker conversation starts with facts instead of memory. It also shows where the exposure sits in the house, such as stairs, outdoor equipment and kitchen layouts, so you can reduce the risk before someone gets hurt.
Your next step: list every person who works in your home this season with their weekly hours, then send that list to your broker with one question: "Which of these people need a workers' compensation policy, and can you bundle it with my home policy?" Start your Rafter assessment at rafterhome.com to keep that record current every time your staffing changes.
