13th month for housekeepers?

I always give ours a 13th plus some extra, same for our pool guy and gardener. I think its only required if they are a full time employee. I believe that is true if the person is required to be at a location for a set number of hours a day, and I think its 3 days or more a week (again, this is second-hand, old recollections of my wife explaining). Our cleaner comes once a week, the pool guy twice and the gardener maybe a couple of times a month.

It depends. 

If she is a full time, on the payroll, yes, you will have to cought it up the 13th.

Now, if she is on a per diem ( Diarista ), no, you are not under obligation. 

The cutoff hours for full time to a per diem or part time determines whether you are liable for the 13th or not.

Upper middle class gentry out here used to have a maid, actually if you look into some older apartments, and houses, you would notice some diminute bedroom and a tiny bathroom out on the back by the Laundry Den.

No longer, no one keeps in house maids, for that very reason.  They started getting organized and claiming their overdue rights and entitlements. 

Thanks for your replies.  All the houses in our neighborhood have a maid's room and bathroom which to me is rather disturbing.  Our housekeepers, and gardener/pool-guy are not on our payroll they are diaristas.  We ended up giving our gardener/pool-guy a 13th month and he teared up when he got it.  This week we will do the same to the housekeepers.  We can afford it and to them it is huge. 

12/11/22.  @Droplover.  The maid's room and bathroom are historical artfacts of a time gone by, nothing to feel particularly disturbed about.  Our apartment built in the late 1960s, has them, too, but I doubt that any of them in our building have been put to that use for going on fifty years.  We put shelves in the maid's room in ours and use it as a pantry; the bathroom is just another bathroom.

I would be disturbed to see them in new construction, but I haven't yet.

12/11/22. BTW, anyone whose Portuguese lets them enjoy Brazilian podcasts and has an interest in how the domestic help system in 20th Century Brazil could verge into a form of slavery would get a lot out of a 2022 series by journalist Chico Felitti, "A Mulher da Casa Abandonada":

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/podcasts/ … bandonada/

Margarida Bonetti was the daughter of a traditional São Paulo family, who "gave" her a young girl to be her maid when she got married.   Bonetti's husband held a number of senior executive positions in the US, and they kept the maid there as a slave for twenty years, never letting her leave the house and locking her in when they were absent.   The podcast tells the story of how the maid, with the help of a brave neighbor, was eventually freed and now lives in the US as a free woman. Bonetti's husband was arrested and jailed under the US anti-slavery laws.  Bonetti herself fled back to Brazil before she could be arrested.

Brazil will not extradite native-born citizens, and the case against Bonetti under Brazilian laws went nowhere.   Margarida Bonetti now lives as a hermit in her family's São Paulo mansion, as it falls into ruins.  It was there that Felitti saw her, and began his investigation.

Thanks for sharing that story and the link to the podcast.  Unfortunately my Portugese is not good enough to listen to the podcast but it's a fascinating story. 

Thanks for your replies. All the houses in our neighborhood have a maid's room and bathroom which to me is rather disturbing. Our housekeepers, and gardener/pool-guy are not on our payroll they are diaristas. We ended up giving our gardener/pool-guy a 13th month and he teared up when he got it. This week we will do the same to the housekeepers. We can afford it and to them it is huge.
-@Droplover

These maid quarters vary in size, and depending the kind of dwelling.   Apartments, depending upon floor size, may have anywhere from a shoebox sized room plus a scant bathroom, to some larger units with studio sized suites. 

Single Family homes may have a standalone or semi detached suite out back.

In both cases, always next to the laundry room/den.

Nowadays, modern units have done away with these.

As I| mentioned before, the dramatic changes on Labor Laws in the 80's/90\s tilted the trend towards per diem maid services ( diarista ). In the old order, these women would be rural migrants who needed work and a place to stay. Suffice to say, a lot got abused and over exploited ( Brazilian upper classes tend to be a bit paternalistic and that has filtered down towards the middle classes ).  By exploited I meant, underpaid ( even with free room , board, and food ) , prey to sexual exploits ), no Labort law deductions, no Health Insurance Coverage .

Under the new system, if you have a full time maid, she or he is entitled to collect their pay and mandate fringe benefits ( private  health care still optional ) , payroll deductions.  One way to circumvent this is to pay per diem ( diarista ), where you schedule your cleaning maid to show up once or twice a week for cleaning duties. 

Under a full time employment, you are in the hook for payroll deductions ( such as FGTS ), the 13th monthly payday ( equivalent to the American Bonus, however mandatory here ). 

If you caught underpaying your in house maid, you run chances to get your banking accounts frozen until the matter is settled in Labor Court.

Now, as for those tiny suites within apartments, that is actually Brazilians copied ( as usual ) from old post war American apartment units.   Yup, you heard me right.   Brazzers copy this concept from Urbanite Americans. 

As for the Gardener or custodian, this is still a custom at some places, owners can get away on paying fringe benefits and entitlements with some arrangement that they are provided with in location shelter.  You still liable to make some kind of payment ( some time off the books ), but you are gaining a loyal caretaker.    The keeper's dwelling is the Home of the Caseiro.   

As in the US, the difference in having or not to pay for benefits, the 13th, lies in the work status.  Part time x Full Time.  if it is a living in position,. regardless of hours worked upon, it is a full time occupation.