Household staffing in Los Angeles has a shape you will not find anywhere else: a principal whose schedule is set by a production calendar, a Bel Air house plus a Malibu weekend place, staff who drive an hour to work, and a non-disclosure agreement on the table before the first interview. The cost side is more predictable: a household staffing agency in Los Angeles will charge roughly 20–25% of the employee's first-year gross salary as a placement fee — $17,000 to $21,000 on an $85,000 house manager — which is the going rate outside the Northeast's slightly lower published tier.
This guide profiles the domestic staffing firms LA families actually hire through, what household staff earn here, and the evaluation questions that matter in a market built on discretion. For fee structures in full and the national firm list, start with our guide to the best household staffing agencies.
LA household staffing fees run 20–25% of first-year salary, with $10,000 minimums common at estate-staffing firms. Full-time private housekeepers in Los Angeles earn $25–$35/hr, executive housekeepers reach $160,000+ in California's top homes, and senior house managers run $140,000–$180,000. Two LA-specific rules: NDAs are standard practice at the serious firms, and California's daily overtime law — 1.5x after 8 hours in a day for most household staff — changes how you budget long days. No single agency's roster covers this sprawling market.
How Household Staffing Works Differently in Los Angeles
Three LA realities shape every search. The first is privacy. With entertainment-industry principals concentrated here, confidentiality is infrastructure, not a nicety: the established firms have candidates under standing NDAs before a client's name is ever mentioned, redact identifying details from job specs, and screen for a track record of discretion in previous households. If a firm's NDA process sounds improvised, its candidate pool has not worked at the level you need.
The second is geography. Staff rarely live where they work — the commute from where housekeepers and house managers can afford to live to the Westside, the hills, or Malibu regularly tops an hour. Ask any candidate about their real commute tolerance early; the polished resume that quits in month three because of the drive is an LA cliché for a reason. It is also why driving records belong in LA screening even for non-chauffeur roles.
The third is California employment law, which is the strictest in the country for household employers. Most household staff — housekeepers, house managers, estate staff — earn daily overtime at 1.5x after 8 hours in a day (2x after 12), not just weekly overtime after 40 hours; personal attendants such as nannies follow a separate 9-hour/45-hour rule under the state's Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. The state minimum wage is at least $16.90 statewide as of January 1, 2026 — higher under many local ordinances — workers' compensation coverage is required for most full-time household arrangements, and payroll must handle SDI and SUI on top of federal obligations. Budget with the daily rule in mind — a house manager working four 10-hour days triggers overtime a New York employer would never see.
The Best Household Staffing Agencies in Los Angeles
These are the firms with real recruiting depth in the LA market. Most also place nannies; this guide evaluates household staffing only — for childcare placement, see our separate guide to LA nanny agencies, because screening a child-facing hire is its own discipline.
The Help Company
An LA institution since 1982, placing housekeepers, estate managers, private chefs, and executive assistants for high-profile households, with reach into San Francisco and New York. Four decades of continuous operation in this market means a deep alumni network of candidates — and client households — that newer firms cannot match.
British American Household Staffing
The formal-service option, with an LA office alongside New York, San Francisco, Miami, London, and Dubai. BAHS is where searches land when the household wants estate-trained staff — butlers, executive housekeepers, house managers running formal service — and it covers edge cases like yacht and aviation crew. Expect an application fee at intake, then batches of pre-screened resumes and trial periods.
The Grapevine Agency
Founded in 2005 by Rachel Zaslansky Sheer and Lori Zuker Briller, both out of the entertainment industry — and it shows in the firm's handling of high-profile households. Grapevine runs corporate and domestic desks in LA and New York, placing house managers, chefs, nannies, and assistants, and built its book on referral rather than advertising. A natural first call when the principal's name is the thing being protected.
Colonial Agency
Operating in greater Los Angeles since 1963, Colonial is one of the longest-running domestic agencies in the country, recruiting and placing across the full range of household roles. Longevity in this market is a meaningful signal: agencies that mishandle discreet households do not last six decades here.
Heartland Estate Staffing
A nationwide estate-staffing firm that has been placing staff in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and LA County homes since 1984, and one of the few established players that handles part-time and shorter-term arrangements alongside permanent placements — useful if you need coverage before committing to a full-time hire.
Mahler Private Staffing
The family-office specialist, founded in 1989 with Los Angeles among its core markets. Mahler pairs placement with consulting — staff planning, household manuals, compensation reviews — which earns its keep when you are building a multi-person staff across properties rather than filling one role.
Pavillion Agency
The New York giant's West Coast outpost, operating from West Hollywood. Pavillion has placed household staff since 1962 and bills itself as the largest household staffing agency in the U.S.; in LA that translates to national reach — candidates willing to relocate — layered onto the local pool.
What Household Staff Earn in Los Angeles
Fees are a percentage of salary, so the salary market sets your total cost. 2026 benchmarks for full-time private-service roles in the LA metro:
| Role | LA range (2026) |
|---|---|
| Housekeeper (full-time, private home) | $25–$35/hr; senior roles $75,000–$115,000 |
| Executive housekeeper | $96,000–$128,000; $160,000+ in California's top homes |
| House manager | $86,159 national average; $140,000–$180,000 for senior roles |
| Estate manager | $85,000–$250,000; ~$185,000 median |
| Private chef | ~$150,000 median; $300,000+ at the top of the market |
| Nanny | $18–$26/hr market base; experienced Westside roles well above |
Load the number before you commit: employer FICA at 7.65%, California SUI and workers' comp, a payroll service, and competitive benefits push true cost to roughly 25% above headline salary — a $150,000 house manager costs about $187,500 all-in. California's household payroll rules have enough state-specific wrinkles (SDI, daily overtime, paid sick leave) that our California household employer tax guide is worth a read whatever the role; for the childcare side of the market, see the LA nanny cost guide.
Live-in staff change the math less than families hope: published national averages run $1,200–$1,600 per week for a five-day live-in schedule, and California wage-and-hour rules apply to live-in household employees too. If you only need seasonal or part-time coverage — a Malibu summer, a renovation year — say so at intake; temporary placements typically bill around 30% of the employee's earnings, and Heartland is one of the few established firms serving LA that structures part-time work as a product rather than an accommodation.
See what a coordinated search looks like. The research is the easy part. In two minutes, watch how a Beverly coordinator runs the rest — agencies, screening, and contracts — so you don't have to.
Watch: Meet Beverly · 2 min →How to Evaluate an LA Household Staffing Agency
The national checklist — exact fee and trigger, replacement-vs-refund terms, applicant rejection rate, verification methods, recent references — applies in full; our national agency guide covers all seven questions. LA adds four of its own:
- NDA maturity: Ask when candidates sign, on whose paper, and how the firm handles job specs for principals who cannot be named. The established firms answer instantly; improvised answers mean the firm has not worked at that level.
- Driving records as standard screening: LA staff drive — kids, errands, principals, canyon roads. A DMV motor vehicle record should be part of screening for most roles here, not an add-on for chauffeurs.
- Geographic honesty: Ask where the candidate lives and what commute they will genuinely sustain. Firms that place for Malibu and the far Westside should raise this before you do.
- Trial days on the books: Working interviews are paid employment under California law from the first hour, with daily overtime if they run long. A firm that suggests cash for trial days is telling you how it treats the rest of compliance.
Beverly vs. an LA Household Staffing Agency
Beverly is not a staffing agency — it is the family's hiring coordinator: one expert running your search across multiple agencies, job channels, and your own network simultaneously, with one screening standard applied to every candidate regardless of source. In a market as sprawling as LA — where the Westside boutiques, the estate firms, and the national players each see a different slice of the candidate pool — that coordination is usually the difference between a six-week search and a six-month one.
The fit is strongest for childcare-centric roles: nannies, nanny-housekeepers, and family assistants, where the search spans both the household staffing firms above and LA's dedicated nanny agencies. For a purely non-childcare estate role — a chef, an estate manager for a household without kids in the picture — a specialist firm from this guide is the right call.
The Bottom Line for LA Families
If the household is high-profile, start where discretion is the product: Grapevine or The Help Company for entertainment-adjacent homes, BAHS for formal estate service. If you are building a staff across properties, Mahler's consulting layer earns its fee. If it is a first housekeeper or house manager hire, anchor on the 20–25% market rate, ask two firms the same seven questions, and compare answers in writing. And if the role touches your children for real hours each week, run the childcare screening as its own track — coordinating that two-market search is exactly what Beverly does for families.
In fee terms, the three LA paths:
- Budget: Direct-source a $25–$30/hr housekeeper through referrals — no placement fee, with the savings going to payroll, workers' comp, and a proper background check.
- Mid-range: One established firm on a standard role: $75,000 housekeeper at 20% = $15,000.
- Premium: An estate search with NDAs and a passive candidate pool: $200,000 estate manager at 25% = $50,000 — the price of not running a public search.
One LA-specific closing rule: budget California into the offer, not after it. Daily overtime, workers' comp, and a realistic commute allowance decide whether your new hire is still there in a year — and they cost less than a second placement fee.
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