The moment you pay someone to work for you — a nanny, a gardener, a cleaner, or staff in a small business — you become an employer in law, with registration duties. It sounds daunting, but for most small and household employers it comes down to three registrations.
1. UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund)
This is the one nearly every employer needs. Register as an employer and register each worker with the UIF, then declare and pay 2% of the wage (1% from the worker, 1% from you) each month. You can do it on the uFiling website or at a labour centre. Household employers use the domestic-employer path, which is built for exactly this.
See our full guide to UIF contributions and how much to deduct.
2. PAYE and SDL (SARS)
You only need to register for PAYE (Pay As You Earn income tax) with SARS if an employee earns above the annual tax threshold. Many household workers earn below it, in which case there is no PAYE to deduct — but you should check each worker's pay against the current threshold.
- If any employee is above the threshold, register as an employer with SARS (within 21 business days of becoming liable) and deduct PAYE each month.
- SDL (Skills Development Levy) only applies once your total annual payroll exceeds R500,000 — so most small and household employers are exempt.
3. The Compensation Fund (COIDA)
Under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, employers must register with the Compensation Fund and pay an annual assessment, so a worker injured on the job is covered. Since 2021 this includes domestic workers. Registration is through the Department of Employment and Labour.
Also get the basics right
Registration is the statutory side. The everyday-compliance side matters just as much:
- Written particulars of employment, given on or before the first day. For household staff this comes from Sectoral Determination 7 (clause 5); for business employees it is BCEA section 29. Either way it must be in writing and it must be given up front.
- A payslip every pay period — see what must be on a payslip.
- Paying at least the national minimum wage.
- Keeping records of hours, leave and pay.
Doing it without the admin
Most of the pain of being a new employer is the monthly paperwork — the UIF declaration, the payslips, the leave records. WageDesk keeps those records for you from WhatsApp and generates your monthly UIF declaration file ready to upload, so being compliant does not mean living in spreadsheets. See how WageDesk works.