Is A House Cleaner An Employee?

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - How do you know if the guy who's working for you is your employee or your independent contractor?

Strippers have sued the Penthouse Club because it treated them like…independent contractors. Although the women could earn $1600 a day in tips (geez, I'm in the wrong profession), they were charged to give part of their tip to the dj, valet, and "house mom" - not sure what that is. So, they said they should have been paid as employees under Pennsylvania wage laws, and a judge in Philadelphia is allowing their suit against the club.

So? How do you pay your stripper? Ok, even if you deny you have a stripper, how about how you pay your house cleaner? Or lawn service? How should you? That will depend, as it did in the stripper case, on a couple of factors including how much direct control you have over how the worker performs the tasks; on the financial control you have: do you pay for all the worker's expenses like cleaning products for your home and decide how the worker is paid? And whether the person gets vacation, sick pay and benefits.

To make sure you're classifying all the people you pay properly, visit the IRS website - even if you don't pay your people in single dollar bills.