Hiring household staff in Miami through an agency costs 15–25% of the position's first-year salary as a one-time placement fee — $13,000–$22,000 on an $85,000 executive housekeeper, before her salary. The firms below are the ones that actually work this market: the waterfront estates, the seasonal households that open in November and close in May, and the homes that run in two or three languages.
How agencies charge, what the guarantees mean, and the seven questions to ask any firm are in our national household staffing agency guide — read it first if this is your first private-service hire. This page is the Miami layer: which firms have real depth here, what staff earn in South Florida, and how to evaluate an agency against this market's two defining facts — seasonality and language.
Miami's strongest household staffing options in 2026 are British American Household Staffing, Morgan & Mallet, SOFLO Domestics, MoniCare, Hire Society, and Household Staffing International. Expect a placement fee of 15–25% of first-year salary; only HSI publishes a schedule (15% standard roles, 20% senior, for its tri-state market). Full-time housekeepers in private Miami homes run $25–$35/hour, executive housekeepers $96,000–$128,000+, and estate managers $85,000–$250,000 — with no Florida state income tax on any of it. If your household is seasonal, negotiate the guarantee clock before you sign.
How Household Staffing Works Differently in Miami
Three structural facts shape every Miami search. First, seasonality: a meaningful share of the client base runs second homes — Indian Creek, Fisher Island, Star Island, the Palm Beach corridor — that need a full staff from November through May and a skeleton crew after. Agencies here place seasonal and short-term roles as a matter of course, something New York firms treat as an exception.
Second, language: this is a market where executive housekeepers run teams in Spanish and principals entertain in Portuguese. The stronger Miami agencies screen for verified multilingual fluency rather than listing it as a bonus.
Third, the water: several firms place yacht crew alongside land staff, and the household-to-vessel crossover is real — a house manager who can provision a boat is worth more here than anywhere else in the country.
Timing follows from the seasonality. The market's hiring crunch runs September through November, when seasonal households staff up for the winter at once and the best candidates field multiple offers; a search that takes three relaxed weeks in June takes six competitive ones in October. If your home opens in November, start the search by Labor Day — and if you are hiring year-round staff, the off-season summer months are quietly the best candidate market of the year.
The Best Household Staffing Agencies in Miami
These are the firms with genuine Miami depth, with what each is actually known for. Several also place nannies; this guide evaluates them on household staffing only — for childcare placement, see our separate guide to Miami nanny agencies, because screening a child-facing hire is a different exercise.
British American Household Staffing
The estate-caliber option. BAHS covers all of Miami-Dade — Fisher Island, Indian Creek, Key Biscayne, Star Island, the Gables — from a national footprint that includes New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and Dubai, and it is one of the few firms placing formal roles (butlers, lady's maids, domestic couples) and yacht crew in the same search. Candidates carry a minimum of five years of private-household experience. Fees are unpublished.
Morgan & Mallet
The international boutique with a real local office — on Brickell Avenue, one of three U.S. locations alongside New York and Los Angeles, within a network spanning the UK, France, Monaco, Switzerland, the UAE, Spain, and South Africa. Founded in 2015 by two former private-service professionals (a chauffeur and a nanny), which shows in the screening. Fees are a percentage of first-year salary, quoted per role; placements carry a three-month replacement guarantee with check-ins every ten days.
SOFLO Domestics
The local operator. A decade-plus in South Florida, with coverage from Golden Beach and Bal Harbour down through Key Biscayne and Pinecrest, and a role list that runs housemen, laundresses, estate managers, and yacht crew alongside the standard housekeeper and house-manager placements. Two things make it a fit for this market specifically: it structures seasonal placements for vacation properties as standard offerings, and it runs no-obligation working trials before you commit. Fees are unpublished.
MoniCare
A Chicago-founded national firm that has worked the Miami market since 2003, placing the full estate stack — private chefs, butlers, executive housekeepers, domestic couples, estate managers — with candidates recruited nationally and willing to relocate. Its fee (unpublished) includes the search, an extensive background check, and a long-term guarantee: if a placement fails, MoniCare re-runs the full search at no additional cost.
Hire Society
The Palm Beach corridor's firm. Founded in 2012 with offices in New York, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach — a footprint that maps exactly onto how many Miami-area principals actually live and migrate. Clientele is entirely word-of-mouth referral, and the firm staffs private events alongside permanent roles, which matters if your household entertains seriously in season. Fees are unpublished.
Household Staffing International
The transparency anchor. In business since 1976, HSI lists Miami among its core service areas and is the only firm on this page that publishes a fee schedule anywhere: 15% of gross first-year salary for standard roles and 20% for senior ones (with 30- and 60-day trials), for its New York tri-state market. Florida pricing is quoted individually — but that published schedule is your negotiating anchor with every firm on this list.
What Household Staff Earn in Miami
Salaries drive fees, so calibrate on the salary market first. 2026 benchmarks for full-time private-service roles, with Miami sitting at or slightly below the top-metro band:
| Role | Miami range (2026) |
|---|---|
| Housekeeper (full-time, private home) | $25–$35/hr |
| Executive housekeeper | $96,000–$128,000; $160,000+ with 7+ years in South Florida estates |
| House manager | $86,000 national average; $130,000–$170,000 senior Miami roles |
| Estate manager | $85,000–$250,000; ~$185,000 median |
| Nanny | $15–$20/hr citywide base; $25–$35/hr experienced full-time in Coral Gables, Brickell, Coconut Grove |
Then load the number: employer FICA at 7.65%, federal and state unemployment, a payroll service, and benefits push true cost roughly 25% above headline salary. Florida gives some of it back — there is no state income tax, so a Miami salary nets its holder more than the same salary in New York, which is quietly one of this market's recruiting advantages. The tax mechanics are identical whether the employee is a housekeeper or a nanny; our household employer tax guide covers them, and our Miami nanny cost guide maps the childcare side of the market.
Three worked scenarios, salary plus fee at the 15–20% anchor:
- Year-round Coral Gables family home: one full-time housekeeper at $30/hr (~$62,400) — placement fee roughly $9,400–$12,500, first-year total near $78,000 loaded.
- Seasonal Fisher Island estate: an executive housekeeper at $110,000 plus a houseman at $70,000 — fees of $27,000–$36,000 across the two placements, and the guarantee-clock negotiation matters more than the fee percentage.
- Brickell working couple: a part-time housekeeper found through a trial-first local firm — often the one search where a $150–$300 registration-style arrangement or hourly-service model beats a percentage placement entirely. Ask before assuming you need a full placement.
The budget surprise in Miami searches is rarely the fee percentage — it is discovering in April that the "full-time" housekeeper hired in November was priced against a twelve-month year the household does not actually run. Decide the calendar first; it changes the salary, the fee, and the guarantee.
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 a Miami Household Staffing Agency
Run the national guide's seven questions first — fee timing, guarantee terms, rejection rates, verification methods. Then add three Miami-specific ones:
- How does the guarantee handle a seasonal household? A 90-day replacement guarantee is worth little if your home is staffed November through May and the placement wobbles in month seven. Ask whether the clock runs on calendar days or worked days, and get the answer in the agreement.
- How is language verified? "Bilingual" on a resume and running a housekeeping team in Spanish are different skills. The better firms test; ask how.
- Who owns the land-to-water seam? If the role touches a vessel — provisioning, crew coordination, tender runs — confirm the agency actually places yacht crew rather than borrowing the vocabulary, and ask for a recent placement that spanned both.
And on fees: with only one firm publishing a schedule, quotes here move. Anchor at 15–20%, ask what the fee buys if the placement fails twice, and get trial-day terms in writing before resumes arrive.
Beverly vs. a Miami Household Staffing Agency
Beverly is not a staffing agency — it is the family's hiring coordinator, running one search across multiple agencies, job channels, and your own network at once, with the same screening standard applied to every candidate regardless of source. In Miami that matters because the market is split between international firms working from national rosters and local operators with South Florida benches; the difficult roles get filled by working both at once, and that coordination is a part-time job Beverly takes off your plate.
The fit is strongest for childcare-centric roles — nannies, nanny-housekeepers, family assistants — where the search spans both the staffing firms above and Miami's dedicated nanny agencies. For a purely non-childcare estate role, a specialist firm above is the right call. For what each hybrid role actually does, see our guide to household staff roles.
The Bottom Line for Miami Families
Match the firm to the household. Formal estate with a boat: start with BAHS or Morgan & Mallet. Year-round family home that needs a housekeeper or house manager without estate theater: SOFLO Domestics, with HSI's published schedule as your price anchor. Seasonal Palm Beach–Miami migration pattern: Hire Society was built for exactly that. Complex multi-role builds: MoniCare's re-search guarantee derisks the misses.
Whichever you call first, the fee is 15–25% of a salary you now know how to benchmark — so negotiate the guarantee for a seasonal calendar, verify the language claims, and make the agency earn the percentage. Two firms, two quotes, one written comparison of guarantee terms takes an afternoon and routinely saves five figures on a senior placement. Do the afternoon.
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