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Care.com's workers look like some of the least likely to have Brunette | Adult Movies Onlinebenefits. The online caregiving marketplace's users fall into two groups — domestic workers and contractors in the gig economy — that are traditionally shut out from benefits programs.

But the company on Wednesday announced it would create a "peer-to-peer benefits platform" to fund the limited benefits for its caregivers. The 9-year-old site connects potential babysitters or other caregivers with families who need childcare, senior care or even pet care. Over 9 million caregivers and 11 million families use its site worldwide, the company says.

“A strong care workforce is critical to our economy and the well-being of families, yet we lack a scalable solution to provide benefits for these workers who support us all. Today is an important milestone for us to better serve the millions of caregivers in our marketplace, and to enable the families they serve to provide them support,” Care.com CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo said in a statement.

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But there's a big caveat: Care.com workers don't have to be paid through the site. The many caregivers who use Care.com to find work but are paid under the table or through another channel won't be eligible for these benefits.

A Care.com spokeswoman declined to disclose how many caregivers are paid through the site's platform versus another method.

According to a report from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, 65 percent of the overwhelmingly female domestic workforce does not have health insurance. Less than 9 percent of domestic workers are able to pay into Social Security and only 2 percent get retirement benefits.

“Caregivers constitute one of the largest segments of the gig economy and the fastest growing large job category in our country. Caregivers frequently work for multiple families and almost always work without access to professional benefits," Lirio Marcelo said in the statement. "The Care.com Benefits platform not only provides that access but now makes these benefits more affordable through the help of employer contributions to the program. Pooled, portable, peer-to-peer benefits represent a new model for household employment and an innovative step forward in professionalizing caregivers.”

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Care.com will take 2 percent of the existing 12 percent transaction fee it charges families and contribute that money to benefits for those families' caregivers. Families have the option to raise that transaction fee to 14 percent and give the additional two percentage points to their caregivers.

The site is billing its new "peer-to-peer" model as a form of employer contributions. While the site is giving up some money by diverting 2 percent of its transaction fee, Care.com itself won't be the employer.

Caregivers' benefits are capped at $500 per year — a lower level of coverage than through a typical employer-sponsored benefits plan. Extra money accrued can roll over into the next year. The benefits are distributed through prepaid debit cards that can be used at places like doctor's offices or for education or transit benefits.

SEE ALSO: 67% of workers in the gig economy wouldn't join it again

"Employer" contributions can come from multiple families for caregivers who work for more than one family through the site.

Care.com first introduced a payroll benefits program in 2012 to give its users access to Social Security, Medicare and other federal benefits. That program, however, didn't provide any funding for health insurance or other employer benefits.

The new benefits program doesn't turn Care.com's caregivers into traditional employees. The caregivers are still on their own when it comes to the workplace protections a traditional employer provides.

The company is among the first of the many that rely on fleets of independent workers to begin to provide those contractors with more than an hourly salary.

SEE ALSO: Law allowing Uber, Lyft drivers to unionize upheld in Seattle

Uber in August launched a partnership with Betterment to give its drivers access to retirement planning. That partnership outsourced all of the logistics of retirement benefits to Betterment and didn't require Uber to contribute funds to its drivers' retirement plans.

Uber's retirement program came as the ride-sharing company fights a lawsuit over the question of whether its workers can be classified as independent contractors at all.

Other workers in the gig economy — Postmates couriers, InstaCart grocery shoppers — are still waiting for their benefits.