The 10 Most Common Mistakes When Hiring a Housekeeper in Spain (and How to Avoid Them)

Why these mistakes cost more than they look

Hiring someone to work in your home is unlike any other kind of hiring. There is no HR department, no sector-wide collective agreement to settle the grey areas, and the relationship is built inside the most private space there is. That is why most of the problems families bring to us do not come from a bad candidate: they come from decisions taken at the start, in a hurry and with incomplete information.

Domestic service in Spain is a special employment relationship, governed by Royal Decree 1620/2011 and substantially reformed by Royal Decree-Law 16/2022. Since that reform, domestic employment falls squarely within the remit of the Labour Inspectorate and most of the historical exceptions are gone. It is worth revisiting what you thought you knew — particularly if you are used to how domestic staff are employed in another country.

1. Starting without a written contract

This is the most widespread mistake and the one that ages worst. Since the 2022 reform, any domestic employment contract that is not put in writing is presumed to be permanent and full-time, regardless of the hours actually worked.

In plain terms: if you verbally agree three mornings a week and a disagreement arises later, the legal presumption works against the family, who will have to prove that different hours were agreed.

How to avoid it. Always a written contract, even for a few hours a week and even where there is complete trust. It must set out duties, hours and schedule, salary, method of payment, probation period (two months maximum), holiday and, where relevant, on-call time and overnight stays. We have a contract template explained clause by clause and downloadable forms ready to complete.

2. Assuming that “just a few hours” needs no Social Security registration

Guides still circulate referring to a 60-hours-a-month threshold. That threshold no longer exists. Since 1 January 2023 the employer is solely responsible for registering the worker and paying the contributions, whatever the number of hours: the old option for the worker to cover her own contributions when working under 60 hours a month was abolished by Royal Decree-Law 16/2022.

The duty to register arises from the very first hour worked, and failing to do so is not a minor irregularity. It is a serious infringement under article 22.2 of the LISOS, fined on a sliding scale from €3,750 to €12,000 per unregistered worker, on top of the unpaid contributions — which the Treasury can claim back up to four years — with surcharges of 10% to 20% and late-payment interest. If the written contract is missing too, that is a second, cumulative infringement under article 7.1 of the LISOS, from €751 to €7,500.

We break it all down in our guide to the fines for employing a housekeeper without a contract.

Living abroad changes nothing here. A non-resident can employ domestic staff in Spain, but the obligations — registration, contributions, contract — are exactly the same, and they fall on the family, never on an agency.

How to avoid it. Register the worker before she starts: this can be done up to 60 days in advance and, at the latest, on the start date itself. It is a free online procedure that takes about five minutes — here is how to register a domestic worker step by step. If she works for several families, she must be registered by each of them.

3. Confusing the wage with the real cost

A good share of the difficult conversations start here: the family budgets on the net wage and only later discovers what the total cost actually is.

For 2026, the Spanish minimum wage (SMI) was set at €1,221 gross per month over 14 payments (€17,094 a year) by Royal Decree 126/2026, backdated to 1 January. For live-out workers paid by the hour, the minimum is €9.55 per hour actually worked, an amount that already includes the proportional part of the extra payments and holiday.

On top of that come the contributions. According to the official 2026 wage table, a full-time job paid at the minimum wage — €1,424.50 a month with the extra payments spread across the year — means €292.37 a month payable by the family. Adding the share deducted from the worker, the total cost comes to around €1,801 a month. Above the minimum wage the reductions taper off and the effective rate rises, particularly for live-in staff. The contribution bases are assigned in bands and updated each year by the Treasury.

How to avoid it. Always budget on the total annual cost, extra payments and contributions included, before committing to a salary. Our cost calculator gives you the full figure in a minute.

4. Deducting board and lodging from a live-in worker without knowing the legal limit

There is a fairly widespread belief that a live-in housekeeper can have a substantial part of her wage deducted for living and eating in the house. The law does allow payment in kind, capped at 30% of total pay, but with a condition that is almost always overlooked: the wage received in cash can never fall below the minimum wage.

In practice, for the vast majority of live-in arrangements — which sit at or slightly above the minimum — there is no real room to apply that deduction. Raising it tends to create distrust from day one and produces no actual saving. We cover the rest of the terms in our guide to live-in housekeeper rights and obligations.

How to avoid it. Treat board and lodging as what they are in this kind of role — a condition of the job — and negotiate the salary in clear cash terms.

5. Ignoring health and safety obligations

This is the change families know least about. Royal Decree 893/2024 brought domestic work into Spain's occupational health and safety system for the first time. Since 14 November 2025, every employer must hold a risk assessment for the role together with planned preventive measures, regardless of the hours or the type of arrangement.

You do not need to hire an external prevention service: the INSST has made the free Prevencion10.es tool available to families, which lets you carry out the assessment, document it and keep the report.

In 2026 the other half of the system fell into place. The SEPE Resolution of 8 May 2026, published in the BOE on 15 May, regulates preventive training for domestic workers and how it is certified. The course is free and online, basic level and around five hours long, delivered on the eFundae platform with self-assessment and a certificate, and it is a single qualification valid even when working for several employers.

How to avoid it. Run the assessment on Prevencion10.es, give the worker a copy of the preventive measures, provide the necessary equipment at no cost to her, and let her know she can obtain her training certificate. We set it out in our guide to the RD 893/2024 health and safety rules and in our review of the official tools available.

6. Keeping no record of hours

In domestic employment, whether a time record is strictly enforceable is contested ground: there is no specific rule imposing it as clearly as in the general regime. But that does not protect the family. When overtime or uncompensated on-call time is claimed, the absence of any record leaves the employer with no way to evidence the hours actually worked.

It is also worth distinguishing between actual working time and on-call time, which for live-in staff cannot exceed 20 hours a week averaged monthly and must be paid or offset with equivalent rest. Overtime has its own limits and its own way of being counted.

How to avoid it. A simple record, signed or confirmed by both parties, is enough. No sophisticated system is needed; what is needed is that one exists.

7. Thinking you can simply let the worker go

The employer's free right to terminate without cause disappeared with Royal Decree-Law 16/2022. It is no longer possible to end the relationship without a reason: every termination must rest on a justified cause and be communicated in writing.

Where the termination is based on household grounds — a fall in the family's income, an unforeseen rise in expenses, a substantial change in needs or a justified loss of trust — the severance payment is 12 days' salary per year worked, capped at six months' pay, with 20 days' notice if the relationship lasted more than a year, or 7 days if it was shorter. If the dismissal is ruled unfair, severance rises to 33 days per year, capped at 24 months' pay. The full procedure is in our guide on how to dismiss a domestic worker.

How to avoid it. Document the cause, communicate it in writing, and calculate the final settlement and severance before having the conversation, not after.

8. Hiring in a hurry and skipping reference checks

Urgency is the worst hiring adviser there is. Most of the bad experiences families describe to us share the same pattern: an immediate need, a single available candidate, and a reference check that was taken for granted.

What a real reference check looks like

A useful reference is not a phone number or a letter. It is a conversation with the previous employer in which you ask specific things: how long the relationship lasted, what duties she actually took on, how she handled the unexpected, why it ended, and whether they would hire her again. And you cross-check it against what the candidate herself has told you.

How to avoid it. Do not close a hire without at least two references verified by direct conversation, and without checking that the paperwork is in order. This is precisely one of the differences between hiring directly and hiring through an agency.

9. Not defining the profile properly before searching

This is the least visible mistake and the one that causes the most turnover. A poor fit is rarely down to a bad professional; it almost always comes from a badly defined role or from expectations that were never put on the table.

Before meeting anyone, it is worth having the following in writing:

• Primary and secondary duties — and what is not part of the job.
• The level of autonomy expected: whether you want initiative or daily instructions.
• The household's routines and how demanding you are about order and detail.
• The real schedule, not an estimate.
• Whether children or elderly relatives will be in her care, and with what degree of responsibility.
• What kind of temperament fits your family dynamic.

How to avoid it. Write the profile down before you start looking, and test it against every candidate at interview. What is not written down ends up being assumed, and what is assumed is exactly what breaks the relationship three months in.

10. Leaving what was discussed unwritten

Holiday, extra payments, personal days, travel expenses, use of the car, meals, the policy on visitors or phone use during working hours. Everything agreed verbally and never written down becomes, sooner or later, a source of friction. Remember that holiday is 30 calendar days a year and that there are two extra payments, unless spreading them across the year is agreed in writing.

How to avoid it. Put every agreement in the contract or in an annex signed by both parties. It does not need to be a formal document: it needs to be written down and dated.

Quick checklist before signing

• Written contract, with duties, hours, schedule and salary set out in detail.
• Social Security registration completed before day one.
• Budget calculated on the total annual cost, not the monthly net wage.
• Risk assessment carried out and handed over, in line with RD 893/2024.
• A simple agreed system for recording hours.
• References verified by direct conversation.
• Paperwork checked and in order.
• Holiday, extra payments and any particular agreements in writing.

At Maids & Co we have spent more than fifteen years selecting domestic staff and supporting families through the employment side of it: contract, registration, payslips and health and safety obligations. If you would rather not risk any of these mistakes on your own, we can take care of it.

This article is for information purposes only and does not replace tailored legal or employment advice.