(a) Domestic service employees who reside in the household where
they are employed are entitled to the same minimum wage as domestic
service employees who work by the day. However, section 13(b)(21)
provides an exemption from the Act's overtime requirements for domestic
service employees who reside in the household where employed. But this
exemption does not excuse the employer from paying the live-in worker at
the applicable minimum wage rate for all hours worked. In determining
the number of hours worked by a live-in worker, the employee and the
employer may exclude, by agreement between themselves, the amount of
sleeping time, meal time and other periods of complete freedom from all
duties when the employee may either leave the premises or stay on the
premises for purely personal pursuits. For periods of free time (other
than those relating to meals and sleeping) to be excluded from hours
worked, the periods must be of sufficient duration to enable the
employee to make effective use of the time. If the sleeping time, meal
periods or other periods of free time are interrupted by a call to duty,
the interruption must be counted as hours worked. See regulations part
785, Sec. 785.23.
(b) Where there is a reasonable agreement, as indicated in (a)
above, it may be used to establish the employee's hours of work in lieu
of maintaining precise records of the hours actually worked. The
employer shall keep a copy of the agreement and indicate that the
employee's work time generally coincides with the agreement. If it is
found by the parties that there is a significant deviation from the
initial agreement, a separate record should be kept for that period or a
new agreement should be reached that reflects the actual facts.
