How do we hire a cleaner or nanny?

If you pay someone regularly to clean, cook or look after your children under your direction, Portuguese law usually treats it as domestic service (serviço doméstico), even for a few hours a week. You register them with Social Security, pay contributions each month and take out work accident insurance. An agency or company takes that on instead.

Three ways to get help

Pay in 2026

The hourly figures use the Labour Code formula: monthly pay × 12 ÷ (52 × weekly hours). Many cleaners charge more than this; it is only the floor. Pay can be agreed by the hour, day, week or month.

Contract and conditions

• Form: no special form is needed, except that a fixed-term contract must be in writing. A fixed term can be renewed twice but can’t last more than 1 year in total, or it becomes permanent
• What to write down: both parties’ details and NIFs, start date, tasks, place, pay and how it is paid, hours, days off and holidays, notice periods, and the work accident insurance policy number. Keep a signed copy each
• Hours: no more than 40 hours a week, with breaks for meals and rest. A live-in worker gets 11 hours’ night rest
• Holidays: 22 working days a year for full time, pro rata for part time, paid, plus a holiday bonus (subsídio de férias). Public holidays are paid days off
• Christmas bonus: one month’s pay (pro rata in the first and last year), paid by 15 December
• Ending the contract: besides the general Labour Code rules, it can end if your finances or family circumstances change substantially, for example the care is no longer needed. You must give written reasons and notice of 7 days (up to 6 months’ service), 15 days (6 months to 2 years) or 30 days (over 2 years)

Registering with Social Security

1. Register the worker in the 15 days before they start, on Segurança Social Direta (Emprego, then Serviço doméstico) or by letter to your district centre. If they aren’t yet registered, you register them
2. The worker must also tell Social Security they have a new employer, by the end of their second day of work
3. Take out work accident insurance (seguro de acidentes de trabalho), which is compulsory and also covers the journey to and from work
4. Pay contributions each month between the 10th and 20th, by Multibanco, home banking or at a Social Security office
5. Tell Social Security when the job ends

Contributions in 2026

• Hourly workers: the conventional hourly base is IAS × 12 ÷ (52 × 40), about €3.10 an hour in 2026, and you must declare at least 30 hours a month. So even a cleaner who comes 4 hours a week costs at least about €17.57 a month from you and €8.74 from the worker
• Example: 10 hours a week is about 43 hours a month: a base of about €134, so about €25 from you and €13 from the worker
• Full time, conventional: on the IAS of €537.13, about €101.52 from you and €50.49 from the worker each month. On real pay of €920, about €205.16 from you and €101.20 from the worker
• You deduct the worker’s share from their pay. On a conventional base, holiday and Christmas bonuses don’t attract contributions
• Pensioners pay lower rates: check the Social Security guide

Tax

If you pay only on the conventional base, or below the IRS withholding threshold, you can report the pay once a year on the annual Modelo 10 return instead of the monthly declaration (DMR). If you pay a real wage above the withholding threshold, you must withhold IRS and file the DMR by the 10th of the following month. A gestor or accountant (contabilista) can run this for a small fee.

For childcare options, see childcare. For your own job rights, see your rights at work.