Does babysitting count as employment?

Rayford Speziale: Keep in mind, this is a legal designation for your privilege to drive after 10:00 pm. As a babysitter, unless you provided your Social Security number upon employment and you are receiving a paycheck that shows you've paid taxes on the money you've earned, you're not legally employed. My best guess is, the parents of the baby are handing you money before or at the end of the night after you've watched their children. This is what is known as "being paid under the table". In some states, it would be designated as "casual labor", instead of employment. And since you're mentioning the driving part, I assume you're baby-sitting the children in their home. If you were doing it in your home, you might be required to be certified in daycare.From a legal perspective, you'll need to provide official documents that show you are employed, and in my example you wouldn't be able to provide those documents because they wouldn't exist. If you are legally employe! d by a specific babysitting service, that would constitute employment. Also, from a legal perspective, being paid "under the table" isn't illegal, but not reporting your income is.However, in the future if you were to apply for a job, it is appropriate to list casual labor as former employment. You could/should also use those parents as a reference....Show more