Kasambahay Law (RA 10361) Explained for Philippine Families

TL;DR: The kasambahay law, Republic Act 10361, sets five floors a Philippine household employer cannot go below. A written contract signed before work starts. Registration of the kasambahay at your barangay. The current regional minimum wage paid in cash at least once a month with a payslip. Twenty-four consecutive hours of rest every week. SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG coverage after one month of service. In Metro Manila the wage floor has been ₱7,800 a month since 7 February 2026, and each violation of the law carries a fine of ₱10,000 to ₱40,000.

Most families have heard of the batas kasambahay and assume it is mostly a wage rule. It is not. Read Republic Act 10361 alongside its implementing rules and the striking thing is how little of it is about the number on payday. The wage is one section. The contract, the barangay registration, the payslip, the rest day, the three government agencies, and the exit terms are the rest of it.

This guide is written for the family doing the hiring, in the order a real household meets the law. A kasambahay reading it should finish knowing exactly what to ask for. It says "she" because most kasambahay in the Philippines are women; every rule applies the same way to men. Every rule below is checked against the statute text and against the Implementing Rules and Regulations signed on 9 May 2013, which is the document that spells out the mechanics the statute only gestures at.

Who the kasambahay law covers, and who it leaves out

The IRR covers general househelp, yaya, cook, gardener, laundry person, and any person who regularly performs domestic work in one household on an occupational basis. Live-in and live-out both count. So does part-time work, as long as it is regular and occupational rather than casual.

Four groups are outside it. Service providers who run their own business and work free of your control. Family drivers. Children under a foster family arrangement. And anyone who works occasionally or sporadically rather than as a job.

The family driver exclusion surprises people every time. Your driver is an employee with rights, but the kasambahay wage orders and the Batas Kasambahay standards are not the instrument that governs the role. Price and structure that job separately using the family driver salary guide. If the same person drives in the morning and cleans all afternoon, write down which job you are actually hiring for before you argue about which rules apply.

Hiring day: the contract, the barangay, the documents

This is where almost every household in the Philippines is technically in breach, because the paperwork happens once and nobody chases you for it.

A written employment contract must be finished before service begins, in three copies, in a language or dialect both parties understand. The IRR lists what it has to contain: duties and responsibilities, period of employment, compensation, authorised deductions, hours of work and proportionate additional payment, rest days and allowable leaves, board, lodging and medical attention, deployment expenses, any loan agreement, and termination of employment. It must follow the DOLE standard contract, the Kontrata sa Paglilingkod sa Tahanan, known as Form BK-1, which the barangay and Public Employment Service Offices hand out for free.

You then furnish one copy to the kasambahay and one to the Office of the Punong Barangay where you live. If either party asks, the Punong Barangay reads and explains the contract to both of you and witnesses it. Separately, you register the kasambahay in the Registry of Kasambahay that the Punong Barangay maintains for the barangay. Registration is the employer's duty, not the worker's.

Who pays for the documents

You may require a medical or health certificate from a local government health officer, barangay and police clearance, an NBI clearance, and an authenticated birth certificate or other proof of age. The IRR is blunt about the bill: the cost of these shall be borne by the prospective employer or the agency. Recruitment or finder's fees may never be charged against the kasambahay, and if you hire through a licensed private employment agency you still shoulder the cost of hiring. Deployment expenses to move her from her province to your house are yours too, recoverable only if she leaves without justifiable reason within six months.

Age

Employing anyone below 15 as a kasambahay is unlawful, full stop. A worker who is 15 to 17 is a working child under the IRR: no more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, no work between ten in the evening and six in the morning, and no hazardous work. If she is under 18, a parent or lawful guardian signs the contract on her behalf. Offences committed against working children draw the heaviest penalty under the law.

Hiring-day checklist:

• [ ] Written contract on Form BK-1, three copies, language both understand
• [ ] Copy given to the kasambahay and to the Punong Barangay
• [ ] Kasambahay registered in the barangay Registry of Kasambahay
• [ ] Proof of age on file, and a parent or guardian signature if she is under 18
• [ ] You paid for the medical certificate, clearances, and transport to your city
• [ ] Wage, rest day, and authorised deductions written down, not agreed verbally

If you want a starting document rather than a blank page, use our kasambahay contract template and check it against the BK-1 fields above.

Every payday: the floor, the cash, and the payslip

Section 24 of RA 10361 still prints ₱2,500 for the National Capital Region, ₱2,000 for chartered cities and first-class municipalities, and ₱1,500 elsewhere. Those are the 2013 originals. They have been superseded many times over by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards, which the same section put in charge of reviewing kasambahay rates.

The live numbers come from wage orders. In Metro Manila, Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06 raised the monthly floor from ₱7,000 to ₱7,800 with effect from 7 February 2026, applies to live-in and live-out alike, and allows no exemption. In the Davao Region the floor is ₱6,500 from 13 March 2026 under RB XI-DW-04, according to the NWPC summary of domestic worker rates as of 9 July 2026. Every region differs, and the rate moves most years, so check your own region's current wage order rather than copying a neighbour. Our salary calculator is the faster way to sanity-check a monthly package against the floor.

Wages are paid in cash, directly to the kasambahay, at least once a month. No promissory notes, vouchers, coupons, tokens, tickets, or chits. GCash and bank transfer are common in practice and generally welcomed by workers, but the point of the rule is that she receives spendable money, not credit at your sari-sari store or an IOU.

Every pay day you hand over a payslip, Form BK-2, showing the amount paid and every deduction made. You keep copies for three years. Almost nobody does this, and it is the single cheapest thing a family can fix.

| Comes out of the wage | Never comes out of the wage | | --- | --- | | Deductions mandated by law, such as her share of contributions once her wage reaches ₱5,000 | Board, lodging, and medical attention | | Loan repayment by written agreement, capped at 20 percent of a month's wages | Recruitment or finder's fees | | Loss or damage she is clearly responsible for, after a chance to explain, capped at actual loss and 20 percent of a month's wages | Deposits held against future loss or damage, which are unlawful | | Nothing else without her written consent | Pre-employment documents and deployment costs |

Two more prohibitions worth naming. Debt bondage, meaning service rendered as security for a debt where the length and nature of the service is unclear or the value of the work is not properly applied against the debt, is unlawful. And you may not interfere with how she spends her pay, including obliging her to buy from you or from a store you choose. Loan assistance is allowed, capped at six months of her salary, and it does not apply to working children at all.

Every week: rest is a right, not a favour

Two rest entitlements sit side by side. An aggregate daily rest period of eight hours per day, and at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in a week. The weekly rest day schedule is agreed in writing, and where her preference is based on religious grounds it must be respected.

The law is not rigid about the mechanics. You and she may agree in writing to offset a day of absence against a rest day, to waive a particular rest day in exchange for an equivalent daily rate of pay, or to accumulate rest days up to a maximum of five. What you cannot do is quietly cancel the rest day and call it a busy week.

Lending her to a relative's household needs its own agreement. The IRR allows it only with her consent, only with additional payment of not less than the applicable minimum wage rate, only for up to 30 days per assignment, and you may not charge the other household anything. Assigning her to work in a commercial, industrial, or agricultural business at a lower rate than that sector's workers receive is prohibited outright.

Three quieter rights round out the week. Privacy, extending to all forms of communication and personal effects. Access to outside communication during free time, and during work time in an emergency. And the opportunity to finish basic education, with the work schedule adjusted so she can attend.

Every year: 13th month, leave, and the three agencies

The kasambahay benefits that repeat annually are short to list and easy to forget.

1. Thirteenth-month pay. Owed once she has rendered at least one month of service, at not less than one twelfth of her total basic salary earned in the calendar year, paid not later than 24 December each year or on separation from employment.
2. Service incentive leave. Five days of leave with pay each year after one year of service. Unused days are not cumulative, do not carry over, and are not convertible to cash.
3. Social protection. After one month of service she is covered by the SSS, the Employees Compensation Commission, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, and you are the one who registers and enrolls her.

The ₱5,000 line in the law is the part that has quietly reversed. The IRR says premiums are shouldered by the employer, but that a kasambahay receiving a monthly wage of ₱5,000 and above pays the proportionate share. When the law was written that threshold excused almost nobody. In 2026 the lowest regional floor in the NWPC summary is ₱5,500, so a kasambahay paid legally anywhere in the Philippines is above the line and shares her contributions. The employer-pays-everything rule now applies mainly to households that are already underpaying.

Registration is one errand, not three. SSS tells household employers to report a household helper for coverage within 30 days from the hiring date, using the Household Employer Unified Registration Form (PPS-HEUR1), the Household Employment Unified Report Form (PPS-HEUR2), and the Kasambahay Unified Registration Form (PPS-KUR), which can be filed at any branch or service office of SSS, PhilHealth, or Pag-IBIG. One counter, three agencies. If she later takes a Pag-IBIG loan that requires upgraded contributions, those upgrades are hers to shoulder.

The day it ends: notice, grounds, indemnity, and the certificate

| Situation | What the IRR requires | | --- | --- | | Contract with a fixed period, ending early | Both parties mutually agree, upon notice | | No fixed duration | Either party gives five days notice before the intended end | | She resigns for cause, such as abuse or contract violation | She may leave at any time, no notice period, no forfeiture | | She leaves without cause | Unpaid salary up to the equivalent of 15 days work is forfeited, and deployment expenses are recoverable within six months | | You dismiss her on a listed ground | Earned compensation, no indemnity | | You dismiss her on any other ground | Earned compensation plus indemnity equal to 15 days work |

Her grounds for walking out are verbal or emotional abuse, inhuman treatment including physical abuse, commission of a crime or offence against her, violation of the contract or the standards in the IRR, a disease prejudicial to health, and analogous causes. Yours are misconduct or willful disobedience of a lawful work order, gross or habitual neglect or inefficiency, fraud or willful breach of trust, a crime against your family, violation of the contract or IRR standards, a prejudicial disease, and analogous causes.

Pregnancy and marriage are not valid grounds for termination. And within five days of her request you issue a certificate of employment, Form BK-3, stating the nature and duration of the service and the work description. That certificate is often the only employment record she has, so write it properly.

What families get wrong most often

1. Treating the contract as a formality. A verbal agreement is where most disputes start, because two people remember the rest day differently a year later.
2. Skipping barangay registration. It costs nothing and it is your legal duty, not hers.
3. Charging her for food or a bed. These are employer obligations, and the IRR says you may not withhold them as punishment either.
4. Making her pay for her own NBI clearance and medical certificate. The law puts that bill on you.
5. Cancelling the rest day when the week gets busy. Waivers and accumulation are allowed, but only by written agreement and with pay.
6. Confusing the family driver rules with kasambahay rules. Different coverage, different wage orders.
7. Starting SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG "once things settle down". Coverage attaches after one month of service.
8. Holding her ID, phone, or passport. Nothing in the law permits it, and privacy and outside communication are explicitly protected rights.
9. Letting a cash advance turn into open-ended service. That is the definition of debt bondage, which is unlawful.
10. Paying the 2013 statutory figure. The number in Section 24 has been superseded by your region's wage order.

The administrative penalty for these unlawful acts runs from ₱10,000 for a first offence to ₱40,000 for a fourth and for any violation committed against a working child, and it does not stop the aggrieved party from filing a separate civil or criminal case. Vetting and documentation reduce the odds of a dispute in the first place, which is why our helper vetting guide treats identity and reference checks as the start of a paper trail rather than the end of one.

Where a kasambahay can report abuse or unpaid wages

Abuse under the IRR is broader than most people assume. It covers physical, sexual, and psychological violence, and it explicitly includes economic abuse, which is withholding her wage or any part of it, or inducing her to give any part of it up.

A report may be made to any barangay official where the abuse occurred, to a social worker from the Local Social Welfare and Development Office or a DSWD Field Office, to a police officer from the PNP Women and Children Protection Desk, or to any officer of the Public Employment Service Office. She does not have to be the one who reports it. Parents and guardians, relatives within the fourth civil degree, social workers, barangay officials, her lawyer, counsellor, therapist or healthcare provider, or two concerned citizens with personal knowledge may all report on her behalf.

Once a report lands, a municipal or city social welfare officer conducts the rescue with barangay officials and law enforcement. The LSWDO is then responsible for temporary shelter, counseling, free legal services, medical or psychological services, and livelihood and skills training, with after-care available for at least six months.

Money disputes take a different route. Labour-related complaints are filed with the DOLE Field, Provincial, or Regional Office with jurisdiction over the workplace and go through 30 days of mandatory conciliation-mediation under the Single Entry Approach. If that fails, a mandatory conference of up to 30 days follows, and the DOLE Regional Director issues a Compliance Order within ten days of submission. Either party may move for reconsideration within ten days and appeal to the Secretary of Labor and Employment within ten days after that. Ordinary crimes go straight to the courts instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Kasambahay Law?

The kasambahay law is Republic Act 10361, the Domestic Workers Act or Batas Kasambahay, approved on 18 January 2013. It sets the minimum terms for anyone who does domestic work in one household on an occupational basis, live-in or live-out. Its Implementing Rules and Regulations, signed on 9 May 2013, spell out the contract, wage, rest, benefit, and termination mechanics.

Is a written contract required for a kasambahay?

Yes. The IRR requires a written employment contract in three copies before service begins, in a language or dialect both parties understand. It must follow the DOLE standard contract, Form BK-1, which the barangay and Public Employment Service Offices give out for free. The employer gives one copy to the kasambahay and one to the Office of the Punong Barangay.

Can an employer deduct food and lodging from a kasambahay salary?

No. Three adequate meals a day, humane sleeping arrangements, and first-aid medical attention are employer obligations under the IRR, not a cost to be recovered. Other than deductions mandated by law, nothing may be taken from the wage without the written consent of the kasambahay, and a loss-or-damage deduction can never exceed 20 percent of one month of wages.

Who pays the SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG contributions of a kasambahay?

Coverage starts after one month of service and the employer registers and enrolls the kasambahay. The employer shoulders the whole premium while the monthly wage is below ₱5,000. At ₱5,000 a month and above the kasambahay pays a proportionate share, and since every regional wage floor in 2026 is higher than ₱5,000, sharing is now the normal case.

How much notice is needed to end a kasambahay contract?

If the contract has no fixed duration, either side may end it on five days notice. Within a fixed term, both parties may agree to end it early on notice. A dismissal for a reason outside the grounds listed in the IRR entitles the kasambahay to earned compensation plus indemnity equal to 15 days work.

Start with the contract, not the interview

The families who never have a kasambahay problem are usually the ones who did the boring parts first. Write the contract before the first working day. Walk it to the barangay. Put the wage, the rest day, and the deductions in writing. Register her with SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG in the first month. Print a payslip every payday and keep the copies. Nothing on that list takes more than an afternoon, and together they remove almost every reason a household ends up in front of a DOLE conciliator.

When you are ready to hire, start your search here with the wage floor and the rest day already decided, or create a family account and send the kasambahay contract template as the first document a candidate sees rather than the last. Offering a compliant job up front is also the fastest way to attract a good one.