What is fair for room and board in exchange of live-in care?

You will be an employer and required to pay taxes. $400? Live in even if able to sleep most of the time is about a $4,000.00 a month job minimum. If you were to bring in an agency for this task, that would be about a 10,000.00 minimum. I hate to think of the sorts of people you would get with room and board and $400.00 a month!

This person would need to be available at night, but would seldom have to do anything then? And would have some morning duties every day? Then would this person be free to leave the premises? For example, could she or he attend full time classes? Work another job? Be off writing The Great American Novel?

What hours would you expect this person to be present in the house?

By "board" do you mean 3 meals a day? Would this person be preparing the meals?

It would help to know exactly what you are expecting.

As Glad says, fulltime live-in caregiving is extremely expensive. But it sounds like that might not be what you are looking for. Please explain.

Oh, not 400.00 a month, $250.00! Jlevy there are non-profit organizations that are actively seeking out situations such as this to assist the caregiver in prosecuting the employer. Google "caregiver rights" to see a sampling.

gladimhere, I was asking. Please stop sending me nonsense replies. I am trying to figure out what is a good solution.

If people don't have a good response they should just leave it. I have enough stress trying to figure this out and then have some person I don't even know respond with nonsense.

Jevy Glad is not giving you a nonsence answer.. she is telling it like it is. 250 a month or a week? This is way too low unless you are providing health care coverage, retirement.. etc. Could you live on 250 a month? ( heck my cell phone bill would eat 1/3 of that!) And I know I could not work 24-7 by myself! Maybe we need more info? as for getting info from people you don't know,,, that seems to be the purpose of this forum. But we are all friendly and trying to help. Good luck with this.. it;s a hard thing to deal with.

Room and board and $250.00 not for taking care of Mom. She has caregivers. She is not expected to cook, help Mom with her toast or cereal and coffee for breakfast. Her caregivers do the rest. Food provided for all three meals. Free wifi, garage, laundry etc. etc. I am imagining this person would have other income besides the stipend.

Ah, jlevy16, that is what I was asking. We just needed more information.

You need someone to be on the premises overnight and through breakfast, with no other duties than that. OK. That is very different than a live-in caregiver.

What are this person's hours? When does the last caregiver shift end? When could the person leave in the morning? It sounds like it might work for someone going to school. Are there any appropriate schools in your area?

I really don't know about a fair stipend, but I think this is a very interesting and legitimate question. Lots of people could get by in their own homes longer if they had someone there at night. Lots of people could take care of their parents longer if there was someone else to get up with them at night.

So, what is a reasonable payment for such a night+breakfast shift? In this case the expectation is the employee could sleep most nights. In other cases, the client may be up a lot at night and would need supervision.

I'd like to hear responses from people more familiar with hiring practices than I am.

What would be reasonable pay, 1) when the expectation is emergency-only night duty? 2) When the person would be expected to stay awake?

Jlevy, We read many stories like yours here. Most of them think room and board are sufficient to provide round the clock care. In fact, this is a situation I am bery familiar with. I provided round the clock for four years for my mom that wanted to pay me. I had left my job and home. Twisteds sisters said it was only fair for mom to pay me since they were busy with their lives and did not have to be concerned with anything related to mom. Until they called APS reporting me for financial explotation, there was none, and one of the twisteds had all control of mom's accounts. So, she knew there was no financial explotation in any way! Why was it so hard to get payment? Because the twisteds were concerned about what would be left for them after mom passed. So now she is in memory care paying three times what I was finally able to receive as payment.

If this overnight person is solely for someone to be there for the night with mom and they can work a regular job or go to school or write that novel, that is something else again. But, I would check with your accountant how the room and board need to be addressed for tax purposes, it would be considered income for that overnight person.

I live in an area where many people have nannies, I researched live-ins when my dad was ill. A nanny or elder live in caregiver 4 years ago in Miami, typically made about $300 for Monday through Friday. Weekends off, only occasionally walking up at night, with a room to themselves. Not trying to start a political discussion, but these are typically / or at least often undocumented workers, often middle aged ladies, supporting families back home. Often not professionally trained, but have raised their own kids and cared for their own elders, or some relevant prior experience. Some are CNAs and documented, but prefer to work independently. They are often OK with the low pay coupled with the ability to live in a better neighborhood than they could afford on minimum wage. These folks are typically working for cash. This is done by many. Beware, this can put you in a very difficult situation, if for example the person gets hurt on the job. I do know of some of these situations that work well and the caregivers are exceptional and loving.
Be advised that if you pay beneath the going rate, the caregiver will likely move on as soon as they get a better offer, and one will eventually come along.

Even at $300, $400 or $500 a week these caregivers earn every cent.

What's fair also depends on whether you're going to treat this person as an employee or as an independent contractor. Are you planning to take deductions from her pay, provide her with a 1099 at the end of the year, obtain insurance coverage for her?

Talk about nannies or caregivers is irrelevant. That is not what op is looking for. He or she is already paying caregivers and knows what that costs in their area.

I got curious about what people pay others to take care of their houses while they are on extended trips. It depends greatly on the location, but it seems somewhere between $20 and $50 per day is common, with discounts for longer periods.

Hmm ... is helping someone who has dementia get a cold breakfast together similar in effort to bringing in the paper and mail and watering plants? It seems more similar to me than to an actual caregiving job.

How feasible this is hinges a lot on the value of room and board, doesn't it? The "board" would only be valuable to someone who hung around and ate on the premises. For someone who plans to eat on campus (for example) that would not be a valuable payment. For someone just trying to get away to write a novel, that might be a great perk. And for whom would "room" be valuable? A student who would otherwise be paying for a dorm room. A person whose house has sold and who needs time to find another place or for builders to finish. A person new to the area who wants time to get to know the area before settling down.

I just know that this is a service a lot of people could use. I hope jlevy can make it work in a way fair to all parties. Keep us informed, would you jlevy? We learn from each other.

If any money in any amount is paid to the caregiver for services the caregiver becomes an employee. Other test of whether an employee or not is if this person is allowed to come and go at will including during the overnight. If the situation legally defines this person as an employee you will be subject to all state and federal labor laws including minimum wage and withholding.
Secondly if this person establishes residency in the home and refuses to do the necessary assignments you have agreed upon you may have problems getting rid of them when the job is over Possibly having to go through eviction proceeding to get rid of them. Check what constitutes a resident in your state before proceeding. You may have to make a schedule that has them leave for a period of one or more days so that they can go to their own home and rest and assure they are not considered a resident in the eyes of the law. Other issues that can establish them as a resident are whether or not they are allowed to receive mail at that address.