How much do you pay your helper?

K

kahling

Registered User
Hi everyone, we are in the process of looking for a domestic helper and are not sure how much we should pay her. I believe the minimum wage is $3400 per mth. Wondering how much everyone else is paying their helper? It would help us determine how much to pay the one we end up hiring. All your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Kahling:thanks
 
$3400. We cover her basic needs like food (she eats what we eat), soap, toilet paper, alarm clock, radio... this is her first time working overseas and she doesn't have winter clothings so we gave her jackets and scarfs we no longer wear. A couple hundred dollars / small gifts on special occassions.
 
for our helper's first contract with us (ends next week) we paid $3400. she buys her own toiletries(except tissue/toilet paper), but she eats whatever we eat. (including when we go all out on new years eve and have king crab legs and lobster(one each)). half way through her contract, we moved to a new flat that had two tiled gardens. because we have dogs that use the gardens to do their business, we pay her an extra $200/week to clean the gardens with bleach at a minimum of once per day, sometime 2-3 times per day.

when we signed her new contract we gave her a pay raise to $3750. we have been happy with her work and since i've had a terrible pregnancy, she has been absolutely indespensible. there's no way in the world we could have gotten through this pregnancy without her.
 
i thought it was $3270/mth. that's what i've been paying, but i pay the govt levy for her. she eats what we eat & when i got to the supermarket I let her choose sth she likes. then i provide the toiletries & even some basic face cleanser & creams. the other helper in the house goes to the market & write down whatever food she bought for them and puts them on the market money. they're very reasonable at those, just fish, chicken & noodles & vegis usually.
 
oh, & i also provide uniform & wrm jackets & clothings. this one is new, she arrived 2 months ago, and she doesn't seem to have any pyjamas, socks & shoes (she was wearing slippers). so i got her her pyjamas, socks & a pair of shoes. i also bought some knickers for her, i don't want her to be hanging some rugged panties around the house. =)

but you don't have to do that, it's just i'm a shopaholic & it's fun to buy cheaper clothes in the street market!!
 
the gov't increased the minimum to $3400 a few months ago. but i believe that if you had signed a contract before the increase, you can continue paying $3270. (we just decided to increase to $3400 as we always paid her $3300 anyway, and i figured that an extra $100 wasn't much.)
 
We pay above the minimum wage $4,500 but she is really experienced and we are happy to do so (may have been slightly duped and inexperienced about the whole thing as well - especially the more I read). But hery, if it is to look after your most precious child and she is doing a good job then she deserves it.
 
By the way, you HAVE to pay the $400 levy - it is the employer's responsibility, not the helper's. You cannot deduct this from her salary (in effect, it already has been deducted, and the minimum wage dropped to $3270 from $3670 at the same time as the $400 levy was introduced).

We pay $3400. We paid a previous helper more but she was rubbish and I really resented the extra I had agreed to pay. The very first time I contacted potential replacements I said that the job paid the minimum, if anyone wanted more then too bad. (But actually no one did ask for more...). I would pay more for a fabulous helper, but unfortunately haven't met one yet.
 
We pay $3400, she eats with us and we give her money at xmas / chinese new year / birthdays or presents - or both this year as she has worked so hard.

You can always give extra as a bonus for hard work but if you pay extra in the monthly salary and then run into problems you cannot take it away again.
 
We gave our helper the min. wage but a month's salary as bonus on eid (she's muslim and it's her equivalent to christmas), and after the summer holidays (she accompanies us back home and we feel she deserves it for being displaced for a month). But her contract will be renewed next month and we are def. bumping up her salary now - she's been so good with us. Other than the min. wage, you have to go with your own situation and what you feel comfortable with.
 
You might also like to consider paying for her mobile telephone line (not the bill for any calls - just the line). It's essential to me that she has a way to contact me and vice versa when she's out and about with my child so I consider it a tool of the job. It doesn't cost much ($100 max) and as a perk she'll get free minutes to use. If she doesn't have a handset you'll need to get her one too - but most families have an old one hanging around that could be used.
 
>> You might also like to consider paying for her mobile telephone line

Do watchout for long distance bills though.
 
We pay ours $4200 because our house is a bit bigger than average. We give her an extra month's salary once a year (this year it was Christmas, although I was planning it for CNY but she needed the money then). We'll give her a small lai see at CNY (tossing between $500 and $1000), and give her token gifts (Body Shop gift sets etc.) and some cash for birthday and Christmas too. We pay her bonuses when we have house guests (usually $500 each time) or when we have big parties, because she does have to work harder. We pay for all of her food - either she eats what we do, or she adds her own requirements to the shopping list. She has taken to adding her own toiletries, which I had not planned but it's hardly worth an argument. We pay for her landline, but not her mobile. We bought her a tv/dvd and pay for her Now Broadband. I did not stretch to putting in cable tv (with Tagalog channels) for her because it would have been a whole new contract and a lot more expensive. We fly her home twice a year at times that suit us (she has young children), but am reconsidering this as it seems to lead to requests for loans.

We are considering whether to give her a raise once she's been with us for a year, but I am inclined to stick with bonuses as they have a more measureable work-reward transparency.
 
you are extremely generous with your helper, i hope that she's worth it for you!

man, my hubby and i don't exchange gifts at christmas worth between $500 & 1000!!!
 
carang, like I said, our house is bigger than the average and her job is primarily housework, so she has to cover about twice as much ground every day as some of our friends' helpers (but they have to do a lot of childcare). In fact, many of our friends pay more, so I often wonder if I am short changing her.

I won't say that she is perfect, she can be very moody and has asked for loans - but I can assure you that I have seen worse! I have been ill recently, and my husband is always away and she has been a lifesaver. I have been asking her to do a lot more shopping, cooking etc. than usual, and frankly I don't know how I'd have managed without her. Until now I was not convinced that life was any easier with FT help than having a cleaner and occassional babysitter, but I've been bought around to the value of live-in help.
 
payment

I don't know anyone that pays below $4.25K. Personally I think $4.25K is a bargain. For anyone complaining about being 'duped' or naive when negotiating, just imagine what you're entrusting an employee with.

You can always get help cheaper but as an employer I think it's really advisable to be self-aware: don't base your salary on how much of a bargain other women get, negotiate what feels right for you. If the house or family is larger, then there's more work involved. You really need to be fair not bargain oriented.

Good luck.
 
tutor1; said:
I don't know anyone that pays below $4.25K. Personally I think $4.25K is a bargain.
Click to expand...

I just recently heard of someone paying $5K total for 2 helpers (sisters). Helpers talk....jeez! I don't know why anyone would take the risk.
 
just to clarify, i NEVER said that she was overpaying. i said that i hope she's happy with her helper for the price that she is paying.

i don't know many people that pay MORE than $4k. we just re-signed our helper and upped her salary to $3.75k she was ecstatic with that as we didn't even offer her a raise. she was willing to re-sign for the minimum. she was shocked when i showed her the contract.

we also give her bonuses when we see fit.

if we could afford to pay her more, we would. but we can't , so we don't.
 
we pay 3500 and she is worth every penny. we also let her do some training courses every couple of month and we pay for it. She loves it and feels very appreciated and we can see the motivational boost in the way she deals with our kids ...
 
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