My question would be, how did you get this job? Are you working for family and they feel your room and board are payment? Was your situation such, at the time, that a free room and board looked good.
Live-ins get paid. And the IRS says they are not self-employed. They get time off. I suggest you talk to your County Labor board and see what a live-in is entitled to by law. Then you take that info to the family. From there you can talk about compensation.
Of course you should. They should be paying you a hefty salary, and also paying into SS Retirement & Medicare for your future. What about your retirement funds being built up for the future?
How do you live on nothing? What about food, clothes, personal items, bills, a car, car insurance, your phone, etc? What about your Health Insurance? What if you get a cavity and need to see a Dentist? Or, go to the ER?
Do you have days off? Do you know that as soon as they don't need you - like, if they go to Assisted Living/Nursing Home, etc - you'll lose your home? Will you have any money, or will you have to go sleep on the streets after being rudely kicked out by the family.
Free room and board includes meals and utilities. I would be willing to wager anything that the OP is on Medicaid (Medicaid covers denistry at dental clinics that accept it) because they have no income on paper and probably also collecting SNAP (food stamps) and on some kind of Basic Needs social program which is cash assistance. Or they are on disability benefits and can't earn legal, taxable income.
This would be how the unpaid free room and board caregivers live. They know how to work the system. No judgments from me because people do what they have to do to get by, but these would be how the OP (and others of the like) can get by without being legally paid for being a caregiver.
One way to get a money fix on this is to make a call to an agency, pretending that you are the family. Describe the 'job' (as you are expected to do it) plus the room and board, and ask for a quote.
Personally if you are there to help out and to have someone there for there reassurance then no.
But if you're working 24/7 expected to do everything then absolutely.
My son is a construction worker, he worked on the upstairs apartment, nights and weekends, instead of payment he is living there free, and now working nights and weekends downstairs.
They don't expect him to work 24/ 7 on the downstairs apartment and neither should you
Anx, that '24/7' and 'reassurance only' leaves a lot of room in the middle. This is particularly tricky if you are theoretically 'on call' but are rarely 'called'. Or if there are expectations about when you will be in the house, when you would like to go out. For example, there is often short-hours work available in retail to cover absences over the lunch break. If you could do it and choose not to, you might be considered to be 'voluntarily unemployed', rather than 'on call'.
My in-laws have an aide that sleeps over. They pay her a salary based on 20 an hour based on 117 hours per week, which is where she started when mil was in chemo and fil had stroked out. Nowadays it’s maybe 80 hours where she’s still being paid for 117 hours.
On That basis, she makes 121,680 a year. Plus, this leech has brought in a kid not her own to sleep in her room while she’s on call for fils accidents, five nights a week.
If you are paying the "leech" $121,680 a year I suggest you go to a reputable homecare agency for a different caregiver.
Or you go on care.com and advertise for two caregivers who would be willing to split the week (this way no one can make your in-laws home their legal residence). Then offer the salary at $50,000 a year apiece. You will get more applicants fighting over the position than you can even interview and check references on.
I did this line of work for 25 years, PeggySue. I also own a homecare agency. Live-in aides don't get paid by the hour, they get salary. The only time a live-in is paid hourly is if they are employed under-the-table (not privately because they're two different things). No homecare aide live-in or otherwise earns a six-figure income.
Try doing what I just told said and you and your family will right off the bat be saving $21,680 a year in payments.
Twenty-five years ago, my father and mother's caregiver was receiving room and board, weedends off, and $110 a week. You should definitely receive a weekly a salary in addition to room and board.
1) Do you have a contract of Indenture that the person you work for purchased and you are required to work for free without wages for an amount of time specified in the contract?
2) Have you been court-ordered to do community service as a live-in caregiver in lieu of a prison sentence for violating the law?
3) Are you an actual slave? (If so that's illegal).
If you answered 'NO' to all three of these questions, you should most definitely be receiving wages from whoever you work for. Free room and board can be considered PART of your working arrangement but it does not replace wages altogether.
Live-ins get paid. And the IRS says they are not self-employed. They get time off. I suggest you talk to your County Labor board and see what a live-in is entitled to by law. Then you take that info to the family. From there you can talk about compensation.
What about your retirement funds being built up for the future?
How do you live on nothing? What about food, clothes, personal items, bills, a car, car insurance, your phone, etc? What about your Health Insurance? What if you get a cavity and need to see a Dentist? Or, go to the ER?
Do you have days off? Do you know that as soon as they don't need you - like, if they go to Assisted Living/Nursing Home, etc - you'll lose your home? Will you have any money, or will you have to go sleep on the streets after being rudely kicked out by the family.
Why, oh why are you doing this?
Free room and board includes meals and utilities. I would be willing to wager anything that the OP is on Medicaid (Medicaid covers denistry at dental clinics that accept it) because they have no income on paper and probably also collecting SNAP (food stamps) and on some kind of Basic Needs social program which is cash assistance. Or they are on disability benefits and can't earn legal, taxable income.
This would be how the unpaid free room and board caregivers live. They know how to work the system. No judgments from me because people do what they have to do to get by, but these would be how the OP (and others of the like) can get by without being legally paid for being a caregiver.
But if you're working 24/7 expected to do everything then absolutely.
My son is a construction worker, he worked on the upstairs apartment, nights and weekends, instead of payment he is living there free, and now working nights and weekends downstairs.
They don't expect him to work 24/ 7 on the downstairs apartment and neither should you
There was a war about it and everything…
We as a nation just celebrated Juneteenth (the day the last slaves heard they were free). Does the OP not know about Juneteenth?
On That basis, she makes 121,680 a year. Plus, this leech has brought in a kid not her own to sleep in her room while she’s on call for fils accidents, five nights a week.
Or you go on care.com and advertise for two caregivers who would be willing to split the week (this way no one can make your in-laws home their legal residence). Then offer the salary at $50,000 a year apiece. You will get more applicants fighting over the position than you can even interview and check references on.
I did this line of work for 25 years, PeggySue. I also own a homecare agency. Live-in aides don't get paid by the hour, they get salary. The only time a live-in is paid hourly is if they are employed under-the-table (not privately because they're two different things). No homecare aide live-in or otherwise earns a six-figure income.
Try doing what I just told said and you and your family will right off the bat be saving $21,680 a year in payments.
Give it a shot.
That was reasonable for the times and considered that room and board and weekends off were part of it.
1) Do you have a contract of Indenture that the person you work for purchased and you are required to work for free without wages for an amount of time specified in the contract?
2) Have you been court-ordered to do community service as a live-in caregiver in lieu of a prison sentence for violating the law?
3) Are you an actual slave? (If so that's illegal).
If you answered 'NO' to all three of these questions, you should most definitely be receiving wages from whoever you work for. Free room and board can be considered PART of your working arrangement but it does not replace wages altogether.