This has been going on for a year. I finally got a 100 off of my rent, but I'm expected to be here nightly. I provide her care, clean, laundry, cook and sometimes drive. I'm also expected to clean her up, no matter what day. She calls me down nightly because she hears a noise or to give her dog water. Family also wants me to sit with her in the t.v. room nightly.
Did you move in as a tenant renting a room for $500 a month? If this is so then you do NOTHING for her because you did not move in to be employed as her caregiver.
Or
Did you rent the room with the understanding that you'd help her out a little bit with things she needs done?
If you have an arrangement like this my friend, you've made a deal with the devil. Her and her family are GROOMING you to become a care slave. Move the hell out of there as fast as you can. Find another room to rent, and this time make sure you have some kind of written lease agreement.
$100 off your rent is nothing for what is expected of you. That averages out to 3.33 a day. Your virtually a slave. You should be getting paid minimum wage for every hour you work.
Time to find another room.
If she's a renter, there is no 'helping out'. She is the tenant and the woman she pays the money to is the landlady.
People pay people to be their caregivers. The caregivers don't pay the clients to take care of them.
It's time to have a sit down with your landlord (for lack of a better term) and write up a new contract detailing "exactly" what tasks you might be willing to take over and about the financial side of things. If you simply want a room and aren't up for caregiving they need to figure out how to manage going forward, and if you can't come to an agreement you may need to look for a new home.
Her duties consist of making dinner and cleaning up, then watching tv with them and helping fil into a diaper before bed and dealing with a diaper change and clean during the night. That’s it. Theres no housekeeping other than dinner time cleanup. She’s never used her car to drive them.
She makes over 122,000 this year. So, if your minimum wage is like 10 bucks an hour, thats 61000 per year. Your room would be paid off at 50 hours of being around to provide assistance at 10 bucks an hour. So after 2.3 days, she owes you minimum wage for the hours you’ll be around for the rest of the month.
Live-ins get paid salary, not hourly. Your family clearly has money to burn and enjoys burning it. So dance by the fire.
This is not a typical caregiver/client position.
You're being cheated! You can find a better deal than that, so move.
- working more than 40 hrs p/wk and no overtime wages
- on-call 24/7 without being compensated
- not being paid as an employee means no contribution to your SS or Medicare, for your own retirement.
- no contract means you're not protected in many ways
- what happens when you get sick or want to go on vacation?
- what happens when/if your client is moved to a facility or passes? You will lose your inexpensive housing?
Live-ins do not get overtime pay and they don't get paid hourly. They get paid salary. The free room and board part is factored in as part of the employment agreement, but it does not replace actual money wages.
Even when it's an under-the-table arrangement, the free room and board still does not replace actual wages.