Short answer
Yes, if they are eligible and it is not part of their pay. A cleaner, driver, nanny or other worker who is poor may receive your zakat as a gift on top of their wages. Zakat cannot be used to pay wages, a bonus they are owed, or anything given in return for work.
Zakat given to one's own employee is valid if he is eligible and it is a gift beyond his wage. If it is given as payment for work, it is a wage, not zakat, and the zakat is still owed.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Many households, especially in the Gulf, employ domestic workers who support families back home on modest pay. If such a worker is a Muslim, is not from Banu Hashim, and does not own the nisab beyond basic needs, your zakat to them is valid and a real help to someone close to you. The four schools agree.
The condition is that the zakat must be separate from what they are owed. So:
- Do not count it as part of their salary, overtime or end-of-service pay.
- Do not use it for a bonus you promised them, or one they have come to expect as part of their pay.
- Do not give it in return for extra work, or on condition that they stay with you.
If both of you understand it as payment for work, it is a wage, and your zakat remains unpaid. Paying fair wages on time is a separate duty, and you should not lower someone's pay on the expectation that zakat will make up the rest.
The same applies to an imam, a Quran teacher or a mosque cleaner: if they are poor, they may receive zakat as a gift, but zakat cannot pay their salaries. Staff of a private charity are not the zakat collectors named in the Quran, so their wages also do not come from zakat; see paying zakat through a charity.
The evidence
Quran, Surah At-Tawba 9:60
۞ إِنَّمَا ٱلصَّدَقَٰتُ لِلْفُقَرَآءِ وَٱلْمَسَٰكِينِ وَٱلْعَٰمِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَٱلْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَٱلْغَٰرِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۖ فَرِيضَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌۭ ﴿٦٠﴾
Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler - an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.
An eligible worker is one of the poor, and may receive zakat as such.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1395
Sahih... تؤخذ من أغنيائهم وترد على فقرائهم ...
"It is taken from their rich and given back to their poor."
Zakat is a transfer to the poor, not payment for services.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Zakat, chapter on the recipients. Zakat given to a worker as his wage does not count as zakat.
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Zakat, chapter on the recipients. Zakat may be given to an eligible servant or worker if it is not in exchange for work.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.