Editorial Methodology: How We Verify and What We Don't Claim

Last updated September 28, 2026

Every site in this space asks for your trust. This page explains exactly what that trust is built on — and, just as importantly, what we never ask you to trust us about.

Primary sources first

Our hierarchy of evidence:

1. Primary sources. IRS publications and tax topics (Topic 756, Publication 926), state department of labor pages, federal statutes and regulations, and program administrators’ own published terms (e.g., the State Department’s au pair program rules). When we cite a tax figure or a legal requirement, the link goes to the source, not to another blog.
2. Verified program terms. Affiliate commission rates, cookie durations, and program restrictions are verified against the program’s own published terms or affiliate-network listings — not marketing copy. When terms aren’t publicly disclosed (e.g., Sittercity’s post-application rates), we say so instead of guessing.
3. Labeled typical ranges. Where figures genuinely vary — agency placement fees, daycare tuition, payroll service pricing — we label them as typical ranges and tell you to verify locally. A range presented as a range is honest; a range presented as a fact is not.
4. Analysis. Our frameworks, comparisons, scripts, and checklists are original analysis built on the above. We label them as such: “our analysis,” “our framework,” “in our assessment.”

Annual federal-figures refresh

Federal household-employment figures change most years: the FICA wage threshold, the Social Security wage base, FUTA parameters, federal minimum wage (which anchors the au pair stipend formula). We commit to reviewing and refreshing all federal figures on this site annually each January, and to noting the tax year every figure belongs to. If you spot a stale figure, tell us — corrections are prompt and significant corrections are noted on the affected page.

What we never do

• No fabricated testing. We don’t claim to have used, tested, or trialed services, agencies, or platforms. We research them.
• No invented personas or quotes. There’s no “Sarah, a mom of two from Austin” telling you about her experience. Every example is either a worked hypothetical (labeled as such) or a documented fact.
• No fake authors. The brand is the byline. The perspective — a CPA who employs household help — is real and is described on our about page.
• No borrowed experiences. We don’t present other people’s reviews or stories as our own, and when we describe market norms (e.g., “two weeks’ vacation is standard”), we’re describing widely documented industry practice, not personal anecdote.
• No unverified figures presented as fact. If we couldn’t verify it, it’s labeled a typical range, labeled approximate, or omitted.

How affiliate links work here

Some links on this site use /go/ URLs. Today, these are plain placeholder redirects to the merchant’s homepage — they earn us nothing yet. If and when affiliate relationships go live, each /go/ link will carry the affiliate tracking, every page using them will carry the affiliate notice, and our affiliate disclosure will reflect the live terms. The disclosure updates before the links monetize, not after.

Corrections

We correct errors promptly. Significant corrections — a wrong tax figure, a changed program term, a misstated legal requirement — are noted on the affected page with the date. Minor corrections (typos, broken links, clarifications) are fixed silently. To report an error: use the contact information on file for thehouseholdemployer.com.

What “research-based” means in practice

It means: we read the IRS publication before the blog post about the IRS publication. We check the affiliate program’s terms page before quoting a commission rate. We do the arithmetic in public so you can check it. And when the honest answer is “it depends on your state” or “we couldn’t verify this,” we say that — because a guide that admits its limits is more useful than one that hides them.