In a private villa overlooking the almost unrealistically turquoise waters of the Maldives, Cassidy O’Hagan, 28, slides the bedroom curtain to check if the child is still asleep. He is not on a honeymoon or on vacation. It’s working. Hours earlier, the family had arrived on a private jet from New York. She, as part of the “child care team”, traveled with them.
For many young people it may seem like an improbable dream. For her—and for a growing number of people her age—it is simply the strongest alternative to a corporate job market they feel is broken. In a world where layoffs are constant, trajectories are falling apart and artificial intelligence begins to compete for the same office positions, dozens of young people are choosing another path: becoming nannies, personal assistants or private chefs for the ultra-rich. An unexpected work turn that, far from being anecdotal, is becoming a global trend.
The rise of “billionaire babysitters.” According to Business Insideryoung people from Generation Z are abandoning traditional careers to work in the world of so-called “private service”: from executive assistants and house managers to drivers, chefs or nannies for ultra-high net worth families.
The salaries are impressive. Different reports describe salaries ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 annually for nannies and personal assistants in the United States, and £150,000 or more in the United Kingdom, as The Guardian documents. There are even extreme situations: Fortune described an offer of almost $240,000 for a tutor to prepare a one-year-old for future entry to Eton or an elite university.
The message between the lines is clear: high-level domestic service has become one of the most profitable, dynamic and competitive employment sectors of the moment.
The wealth that sustains it. Behind the boom there is an obvious explanation: global wealth has multiplied. Added to this is what UBS called “the rise of the common millionaire”: 52 million people in the world own between 1 and 5 million dollars in investable assets. All this wealth needs people: mansions, private jets, megayachts and extensive portfolios of residences require entire teams to operate.
In certain epicenters of wealth, demand has skyrocketed to the point of absurdity. The New Yorker documents that in Palm Beach —recently converted into a laboratory of extreme capitalism— the salaries of nannies exceed 140,000 or 160,000 dollars annually, with partial housing included, bonuses and endless hours. The economy is literally being reconfigured around who can pay to delegate any task imaginable.
Gen Z against corporatism. The other half of the equation is in the young people. According to the Deloitte reportonly 6% aspire to a managerial position. They seek balance, personal fulfillment and emotional stability. However, as shown a Bankrate surveytheir financial expectations have increased: many believe they need salaries close to six figures annually to feel “free” or “comfortable” financially.
The reality of hiring, however, move in the opposite direction: difficulties in finding employment, entry-level salaries that do not cover rent, and companies where AI is already replacing human tasks. Buried in this contrast, many young people are choosing to work for the private service: money, stability, travel, benefits and — for some — the feeling of doing a job more human than any Excel.
The price of luxury: what doesn’t appear on Instagram. Behind the extraordinary figures and photographs next to infinity pools, the reality is more complex. According to testimonies collected by Business Insider either The New Yorkerthese jobs are as lucrative as they are demanding. The working hours can exceed 70 or 80 hours per week, and during summers or international tours they are close to 100. “Absolute availability”—24 hours a day for consecutive weeks—is the true currency.
And luxury does not lighten the burden: it intensifies it. In some cases, nannies fly first class, participate in exclusive dinner parties, or stay in five-star hotel suites. In others, as The Guardian explainsthey eat separately, they fly in economy class while the parents fly in business or they must follow strict protocols about how to enter a room, where to stand, what to say or what not to say.
Added to this is the requirement for absolute discretion. The New Yorker documents confidentiality agreements, control of social networks, household manuals and rules on clothing, schedules or even the type of footwear allowed in certain rooms. The staff lives “on the edge of privacy and anonymity”: they know everything, but they can’t tell anything. And all of this results in a very high cost on an emotional level. Many nannies recognize that this type of employment makes it almost impossible to have children of their own, maintain a relationship or build a stable social circle. One of them sums it up like this, cited by the same medium: “It’s living other people’s lives, not yours.”
Where is all this going? Palm Beach, London, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Monaco. The geographies repeat themselves: where wealth arrives, agencies, waiting lists and competition for the best personnel appear. In some places, the pressure is so intense that qualified staff are in short supply even amid hundreds of applications. Families want experience, discretion, professionalism and, increasingly, university education.
Domestic service has stopped being a job: it has become a career. But with this professionalization the distance also grows. They are jobs that require being inside without ever being part of the inside. Closeness without belonging. Intimacy without reciprocity. A silent frontier that defines the era. Meanwhile, another half of the care sector remains trapped on barely living wages. The contrast is brutal: the same system that raises one nanny to $200,000 relegates another, outside the elite circuit, for the minimum wage.
What this phenomenon reveals. In a world where young people board megayachts to find the stability that offices no longer offer, the rise of elite nannies and assistants is not a simple job change. It’s a symptom.
It speaks of an economy that is organized around those who can pay for time, attention and affection. It speaks of a generation that, faced with a broken labor market, finds its best opportunities not in building its own future, but in supporting—with absolute dedication—the future of the richest.
And it raises, in essence, a disturbing question: What type of society are we creating if the most promising career paths consist of serving, from excellence and invisibility, the 1% that concentrates the wealth?
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