Employed Nanny vs. Contractor Nanny: Who Is Actually Liable?

Most families hiring in-home care never think about employment status until something happens. By then it has already been decided — not by what anyone called the arrangement, but by how the work was actually structured.

This is a plain description of how the two models differ. **It is not legal advice**, and status questions are fact-specific. Where it matters to you, ask someone qualified.

The thing that surprises people

**You cannot choose employment status by agreeing to it.** Whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor is determined by the substance of the relationship — who controls the work, who sets the hours, whose tools are used, whether the worker can profit or lose, whether they work for others.

A caregiver who comes to your home, on your schedule, following your instructions, using your equipment, for you alone, has most of the hallmarks of employment regardless of what the invoice says. Agencies, families and workers have all, at various points, described such arrangements as contracting. Labelling it that way does not settle the question if it is ever examined.

That is the single most important thing to understand, because everything below follows from it.

What "the family is the employer" actually means

In the direct-hire and marketplace models, the family typically becomes the employer. Practically, that tends to mean:

What "the agency is the employer" means

In the employment model, the caregiver is the agency's employee. The agency runs payroll, handles remittances, carries the insurance, and is the employer of record. The family books a service rather than hiring a person.

The practical consequences: no payroll for you, no year-end forms for a household employee, and if the caregiver is injured while working, that sits with the employer rather than with the household.

Where Puffin sits — and one important exception

**Hourly care** — childcare, postpartum, senior support, event nannies — is delivered by **Puffin's own employees**. Puffin carries the insurance, runs the payroll, and is the employer of record. You are never the employer of someone working in your home under an hourly booking.

**Nanny Placement is the exception, and it is a deliberate one.** In a placement, Puffin runs the search, the CRRP checks and the reference verification, presents matched candidates, and then steps out. **The placed nanny becomes your family's employee, not Puffin's.** That is what a placement is — you are buying a search, not an ongoing employment relationship.

Families sometimes assume the employment model carries over to placement. It does not, and it is better to know that before you hire than after. If you want the employment model, hourly care is the product where it applies.

What to ask before you hire