When choosing a cleaning company, how important is workers' compensation insurance? What happens when your independent maids slip and fall outside of your home? It will most likely be a case for the courts. In one case, an independent maid who had served the same family, one morning a week, for 18 years ended up slipping, falling and suing the family.

If this maid had worked for a legitimate company, her employer would have covered her with workers' compensation insurance, insulating the homeowner from risk.

Differentiating an Independent Contractor from a Domestic Employee

How do you differentiate an Independent Contractor from a Domestic Employee?

It goes to control. If the homeowner controls the day an independent maid works, her duties on the job, and supplies her with the tools she uses to clean the home, that independent maid is really an employee of that household. Even if she only works a couple of hours a week.

When you have employees, even domestic employees, you need to carry workers' compensation insurance because your homeowner's insurance will not cover you. 

The question of whether hiring independent contractors vs. cleaning companies to clean your home is an important one. Learn more below!

Learn More about Workers' Compensation Insurance:

Does your maid need Workers' Compensation Insurance?

Workers Compensation Reality - Protect Yourself!