A late school pickup, an evening work event, coverage while you were sick — small schedule changes add up. And if they push your nanny's total hours past 40 in a single week, overtime pay is generally required. Most nanny employers don't realize this applies to them, but once you understand how it works, it's straightforward to manage.
In most cases, yes. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), household employees, including nannies, are entitled to overtime pay for every hour worked over 40 in a single workweek. Those hours must be paid at one and a half times their regular hourly rate.
It's easy to assume overtime only applies to traditional corporate employers with large teams. But when you hire a household employee, you take on many of the same wage and hour responsibilities as any other employer.
The math is simple. Say your nanny earns $22 per hour and works 44 hours in a week:
A good household payroll service calculates overtime automatically, so the correct rate is applied every pay period without you having to do it by hand.
Federal law requires overtime after 40 hours in a week for live-out nannies in all states. However, some states also have daily overtime requirements. In California and Colorado, overtime is owed after 8 hours in a single day, even if the weekly total stays under 40. If you're in one of those states, daily hours matter just as much as weekly totals.
Under federal law, a nanny who genuinely lives in your home as part of their employment is generally exempt from the overtime requirement. However, several states do not follow the federal exemption. If your nanny lives with you and you're in Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, or New York, overtime is still required under state law.
Always apply whichever standard — federal or state — provides greater protection for your employee. If you're unsure what applies in your state, that's exactly the kind of question we can help you answer.
Sleep time rules vary depending on whether your nanny lives with you and how their shifts are structured. The Department of Labor breaks this into three situations.
If your nanny lives in your home, you can agree in writing to exclude sleep time from paid hours. To do that, you must provide private quarters in a homelike environment. Under that arrangement, up to 8 hours of sleep per night can be unpaid, as long as your nanny is paid for at least 8 hours of work during the same 24-hour period (for extended stays) or for some other hours during the workweek (for permanent live-in arrangements).
Two important limits apply on any given night. First, any interruption to sleep time must be paid. Second, if your nanny does not get at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep during the night, the entire sleep period becomes paid time — none of it can be excluded.
For longer shifts where your nanny is not a live-in employee, you can still agree — expressly or by implication — to exclude a sleep period, as long as you provide adequate sleeping facilities and your nanny can reasonably expect to get at least 5 consecutive hours of sleep. Up to 8 hours per 24-hour shift can be excluded under those conditions.
The same limits apply: any interruption must be paid, and if your nanny gets fewer than 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep, the full sleep period must be paid.
Sleep time cannot be excluded from paid hours for shifts shorter than 24 hours. If your nanny works an overnight shift with a defined start and end time, all of those hours are compensable.
California note: California does not allow sleep time to be unpaid under any arrangement. If you're in California and your nanny works extended or 24-hour shifts, all hours on duty — including designated sleep periods — must be compensated.
This is more common than you'd think, and it's fixable. If you realize overtime hasn't been handled correctly, here's what to do:
Getting ahead of it on your own is always the better path. It demonstrates good faith, helps you avoid potential compliance issues, and keeps things on solid footing with your nanny.
The bottom line: Overtime rules for nannies involve federal law, state law, daily thresholds, live-in exemptions, and sleep time agreements. There's a lot to keep straight, and the details vary depending on where you live and how your nanny's schedule is set up. At HomeWork Solutions, we handle all of it for our clients, so they know it's being done right and they can spend their time on everything else. If you'd like to talk through your specific situation, we offer complimentary consultations. There's no obligation, and you'll walk away knowing exactly where you stand.