Short answer. Decent lodging, adequate food and medical attendance, free of charge and on top of the cash wage. The Labor Code article saying so was repealed by Republic Act No. 10361 (2013), the Batas Kasambahay, which now sets the standard a household must meet.
What the law says
The employer shall furnish the househelper, free of charge, suitable and sanitary living quarters as well as adequate food and medical attendance.
Labor Code, Article 148 — Board, Lodging And Medical Attendance. Read the full provision →
The old wording, and the law that replaced it
Article 148 of the Labor Code required that The employer shall furnish the househelper, free of charge, suitable and sanitary living quarters as well as adequate food and medical attendance. That article was expressly repealed by Republic Act No. 10361 (2013), the Batas Kasambahay, whose repealing clause struck out the whole Labor Code chapter on the employment of househelpers. The substance of the duty did not vanish — a live-in domestic worker is still owed board, lodging and medical attendance — but the standard, and everything else about the employment, is now set by that Act. Read the requirements there.
Free of charge means it is not the wage
The three words that do the most work are free of charge. Housing and feeding a live-in kasambahay is an obligation of the household, not a form of payment. A household that treats the spare room and the meals as her salary, or that deducts their supposed value from what it hands over, has not paid her. Under Republic Act No. 10361 the cash wage and these provisions stand as separate obligations, and the Act governs what may lawfully be deducted from a domestic worker's wage. Do not assume a deduction is valid because it was mentioned at hiring.
What suitable accommodation actually means
The old text spoke of suitable and sanitary living quarters, and that captures the idea well enough to be useful: somewhere to sleep that is clean, safe, private enough for an adult, and not a corridor, a landing or a storeroom. Food must be adequate rather than leftovers by grace. Medical attendance means the household does not simply leave a sick worker to her own devices. The concrete standard a household must now meet, and the related duties on rest, days off and humane treatment, are those laid down in Republic Act No. 10361.
If the conditions are not being met
Note what is actually provided and since when, keep the employment contract and registration papers, and keep any record of wages and deductions. Where accommodation is the problem, dates and photographs help. Because the governing law is Republic Act No. 10361, a complaint about living conditions runs through the machinery that Act provides, and it sits alongside any claim for unpaid wages rather than replacing it. This page is general legal information about the duty and its current source, not advice on a particular household, and no outcome can be promised.