Family
Household staff and family drivers: contracts, rights and procedures
Hire a kasambahay (helper, yaya, cook, gardener) or a family driver lawfully: written contract, minimum wage by region, SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, rest days, ending the job and handling a DOLE complaint.
Last verified: 2026-10
Situations covered (15)
- Hiring a kasambahay: written contract and registrations
- Hiring through a private employment agency
- Worker aged 15 to 17: allowed with strict limits
- Occasional help: outside the Kasambahay Law, live-out staff inside
- Minimum wage by region and payment rules
- SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG: the employer registers and pays
- Rest periods, leave and 13th month pay
- No contract and no registration yet: regularize now
- Dismissal for a just cause listed in the law
- Ending the job without fault: 5 days' notice or mutual agreement
- Worker leaving without notice or valid reason
- Labor complaint: SEnA conciliation, then DOLE
- Family driver: outside the Kasambahay Law, under the Civil Code
- Ending a family driver's job: Civil Code rules
- Driver employed by a company or agency: ordinary Labor Code employee
Sources
- RA 10361 (Domestic Workers Act or Batas Kasambahay, 2013) — Lawphil
- Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 10361 (coverage, exclusion of family drivers, registration, SEnA and DOLE procedure)
- National Wages and Productivity Commission — current minimum wage rates for domestic workers by region
- NWPC (4 February 2026) — Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06: ₱7,800 effective 7 February 2026
- Civil Code of the Philippines, Arts. 1689–1699 (household service) — Lawphil
- Atienza v. Saluta, G.R. No. 233413 (17 June 2019) — family drivers are governed by the Civil Code
- Forvis Mazars — SSS contribution rate of 15% from 1 January 2025 (SSS Circulars 2024-006 and 2024-007)
- SweldoPH — household employer's guide to RA 10361 (contribution example at the NCR minimum, secondary source)