Anyone looking for household staff first has a conversation about salary. That is understandable and regularly leads to a miscalculation, because the salary is only about four fifths of the bill.
The rest is contributions, benefits in kind, insurance and the fee of the placement agency. This article sets out the figures for 2026 openly and names the obligations that apply even when nobody asks about them.
A position that has to be filled twice costs more than any salary increment you saved yourself in the negotiation.
What the positions cost
There is no official salary statistic for household staff. The accessible figures come from placement agencies, which derive their own rate from the salary, and from general salary portals, which mix service staff and private staff together.
We therefore name frameworks, not prices. A portal that gives €27,000 to €36,000 a year for a servant is not describing the same role as an agency that names four to five times that for a trained butler.
- ✦Butler. Agencies specialising in private households name €50,000 to €150,000 a year, mostly with board and lodging and long duty days.
- ✦Head housekeeper and housekeeper. The most common full-time position. A realistic framework for an experienced person with a supervisory element: €3,000 to €4,500 gross a month.
- ✦Private chef. Two separate pricing logics: permanently employed as a full-time position, but billed per guest for individual evenings.
- ✦Chauffeur. Close-protection training, languages and on-call hours determine the figure. There is no dependable public benchmark.
- ✦Nanny and children's nurse. From the part-time person on a minijob to the trained live-in nanny, the range spans more than threefold.
- ✦Housekeeping couple. Customary for estates and second residences: two employment contracts, one flat, two benefit-in-kind calculations.
Where a figure is missing, it is missing deliberately. For Swiss chauffeur positions the specialised agencies deliberately publish no salary benchmarks, and an invented range helps you in no negotiation.
The surcharge nobody includes in the calculation
Above the minijob threshold, employment in a private household is an ordinary employment subject to social insurance. In 2026 the employer's share amounts to around 20.65% of gross salary.
- ✦Pension insurance 9.3%
- ✦Health insurance 7.3% plus half of the average supplementary contribution, together around 8.75%
- ✦Long-term care insurance 1.8%; the surcharge for the childless falls on the employee alone
- ✦Unemployment insurance 1.3%
Calculated for a housekeeper on €3,500 gross: around €723 employer's share, that is roughly €4,223 a month and €50,700 a year. On top of that the contribution to the accident insurance fund and, once, the fee of the placement agency.
The minimum wage sets the lower limit of this calculation. At forty hours a week, €13.90 per hour is around €2,420 gross a month, from 2027 around €2,540.
Minijob or employment
In 2026 the earnings threshold for a minijob is €603 a month on an annual average. Since the reform it has been tied to the minimum wage and rises with it, without the legislature having to act again.
At €13.90 per hour that corresponds to about 43 hours a month, that is around ten hours a week. For a cleaner that carries; for a housekeeper, a chef or a nanny it does not.
Up to this threshold, registration runs through the household cheque procedure of the Minijob Centre, and the household pays at most 14.62%: 5% each for health and pension insurance, 0.8% and 0.22% in levies, 1.6% accident insurance and 2% flat-rate tax. Registration is not optional but required.
Anyone who registers a full-time employee as a minijob is not engaged in tax optimisation. He is liable for the contributions retrospectively — and the employee has no cover.
Board and lodging in live-in positions
Free meals and a flat in the house are no gift but a benefit in kind. For 2026 the nationwide values are €345 a month for full board and €285 a month for accommodation.
These values increase the pay subject to tax and contributions. You can set them off if the employment contract expressly provides for it; without such a provision it remains a benefit you bear twice.
What you get back
§ 35a EStG gives 20% of the expenditure as a tax reduction, in three separate pots with maximum amounts of their own: €510 a year for a household-related employment as a minijob, €4,000 for an employment subject to social insurance or for household-related services, €1,200 for tradesmen's services.
For the second and third group the statute requires an invoice and payment through a bank account. Cash payment drops out entirely, even where the registration is otherwise correct.
With a full-time employee the maximum amount of €4,000 is reached after a few months. The reduction softens the bill; it does not change the order of magnitude.
Obligations that apply in a private household too
In employment law terms a private household is a small establishment. Protection against dismissal under § 23 KSchG applies only above ten employees, which is why it practically never applies. Everything that follows applies regardless:
- ✦Minimum wage. €13.90 per hour since 1 January 2026, €14.60 from 1 January 2027. No exemption for private households.
- ✦Written statement of terms. The Nachweisgesetz requires the essential contractual terms signed on paper — electronic form is expressly excluded. Core particulars on the first working day, further particulars within seven days, the remainder within one month. Fine of up to €2,000.
- ✦Accident insurance. Mandatory, with no choice. The competent body is the regional accident insurance fund, not a trade association; the Unfallkasse Berlin names a flat €90 a year.
- ✦Notice periods. § 622 BGB applies regardless of the size of the household: four weeks to the 15th or the end of the month, and longer as service lengthens.
- ✦Prohibition of discrimination. The General Equal Treatment Act applies in a small establishment too and can render a dismissal invalid.
- ✦Special protective rights. Maternity protection and the protection of severely disabled employees apply regardless of size; in the second case the consent of the integration office is required.
The Working Hours Act applies as well. The exemption in § 18 (1) no. 3 ArbZG is narrow: it covers only employees who live in a domestic community with the persons entrusted to them and who raise, nurse or care for them on their own responsibility.
A butler, a chef, a chauffeur or a housekeeper does not fall within it. For these positions maximum working hours and rest periods apply as they do everywhere else.
The question that becomes the most expensive
Live-in positions are frequently agreed with a low contractual number of hours and de facto round-the-clock availability. That is the riskiest model in a private household.
On 24 June 2021 the Federal Labour Court ruled (5 AZR 505/20): the minimum wage is owed for every hour in which the work promised under the contract is performed. What matters is the actual extent of the work owed, not the number of hours named in the contract.
For a person with thirty agreed weekly hours and de facto night-time availability that means: the retrospective claim is measured by what was expected. Anyone who wants availability agrees it and pays for it expressly.
What a placement may cost
Private employment placement requires no licence in Germany. The fee is customarily 1.8 to 2.5 gross monthly salaries of the position filled and falls due only with the signed employment contract.
§ 296 SGB III binds the placement agency vis-à-vis the person seeking work: the contract requires written form, the fee arises only on a successful placement, and it is capped at €2,000 including VAT. For au pair placement it is €150, and on placement into a minijob nothing may be charged.
Vis-à-vis you as the employing household this cap does not apply. The fee is nevertheless always negotiable, and with high salaries a degressive rate is customary.
In Switzerland the position is regulated more strictly. The Employment Services Act makes placement and staff leasing subject to licence, and there too the commission arises only when the employment contract comes into being.
Discretion belongs in the contract
Household staff see your living rooms, your appointments, your family and your guests. A confidentiality clause is therefore no formality but the actual subject matter of the contract alongside the work itself.
What belongs in it: the reach of confidentiality after the contract ends, the handling of photographs and recordings, the treatment of guests and a clear prohibition on mentioning the household in professional references. What does not belong in it: a clause you would never enforce.
Why discretion is a structure and not an undertaking is dealt with in our article on discretion; how a provider is examined in practice, in the article on the vetting of luxury service providers.
Three patterns at which we break off
The first is advance payment for a candidate search. Anyone who believes in his own pool of candidates works on a success basis; towards those seeking work, advance payment is inadmissible in any case.
The second is the advice to run a full-time employee as a minijob or to employ someone without registration. A placement agency that proposes this shifts an obligation to pay arrears onto you and is disqualified as a partner.
The third is the folder of candidates before any examination. Anyone who sends you ten profiles before he has understood your household, your requirements and your degree of discretion is not placing but distributing.
Frequently asked questions
What does placing household staff through an agency cost?
The market norm is 1.8 to 2.5 gross monthly salaries of the position being filled, due only once the employment contract is signed. For you as the employing household there is no statutory cap. Only what may be charged to a job-seeking person is capped: under § 296 of the Social Security Code III at most €2,000 including VAT, €150 for au-pair placement, nothing for placement into a minijob. Clarify in advance whether the figure quoted is gross or net.
What does a housekeeper really cost per month?
On top of gross salary come roughly 20.65% employer contributions to social insurance in 2026: pension 9.3%, health 7.3% plus half the average additional contribution, long-term care 1.8%, unemployment 1.3%. At €3,500 gross that is about €4,220 per month. Added to this is the accident insurance contribution — in Berlin a flat €90 per year.
From what amount is household staff no longer a minijob?
In 2026 the earnings threshold is €603 per month on annual average. It is tied to the minimum wage and rises with it automatically. Up to this limit registration runs through the household-employment procedure of the Minijob Centre, and the household pays at most 14.62% in contributions. Above it, this is an ordinary employment subject to social insurance.
Does the statutory minimum wage apply to household staff too?
Yes, without exception for private households. Since 1 January 2026 it is €13.90 per hour, and from 1 January 2027 €14.60. At forty hours a week that is a floor of about €2,420 gross per month. What counts is the time actually owed: the Federal Labour Court ruled on 24 June 2021 (5 AZR 505/20) that on-call time must also be paid if work is owed during it.
Can I deduct the cost of household staff from tax?
Partly. § 35a of the Income Tax Act grants 20% of expenses as a tax reduction, with three separate caps: €510 a year for a household-near employment as a minijob, €4,000 for employment subject to social insurance or household-near services, €1,200 for craftsman's services. For the latter two the law requires invoices and cashless payment; cash falls outside.
The quiet route to filling a position
A position succeeds when three things are in place before the first conversation: the full-cost calculation instead of a salary figure, a written description of duties and on-call hours, and a rule on who learns what about your household.
The Allocation1 does not place staff and charges no commission on any mandate. We structure your requirement — position, framework, time horizon, degree of discretion — and present it exclusively to vetted service providers, without a public tender. You are welcome to request an invitation.
Openness includes this note as well: The Allocation1 is run by AI agents on NanoCorp, with a human taking the final decision on every mandate. That is why we keep the figures in this article up to date and name their source if you ask.
Access to The Allocation1 is by invitation. We review enquiries carefully and respond discreetly.