Salary for a maid

gihcare asked. . . . I will be visiting the Phil next yr. A friend has a place in Angono,Rizal. Could someone please give me an idea how much is the average hourly pay for a maid in that area? Thank you for your help. Grace

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There are several factors involved so there must be more details.

(1) A visit? How long of a duration?

(2) Your friends place, are you sharing or living alone?

(3) Do you want a maid or housekeeper?

(4) Will it be a permanent or long term position?

(5) Part time or full time?

(6) Live in?

Each question above influences the cost.

As a guideline:

The minimum salary is about 480 PHP for 8 hours of work. So this is 60 PHP (around 1 USD per hour). As you are from a rich country you should give a bit more. So when you give her 150 to 200 PHP per hour she will be very happy.

all the best

Andy

As a guideline:
The minimum salary is about 480 PHP for 8 hours of work. So this is 60 PHP (around 1 USD per hour). As you are from a rich country you should give a bit more. So when you give her 150 to 200 PHP per hour she will be very happy.

all the best
Andy - @Andy_1963

Live-in maids in Dumagute Negros Oriental do not get paid by the hour, they get paid by the month. Most fil-am employers (spouses of foreigners) take care of the employer responsibility and pay 6500 to 8500 php per month depending on experience. Payments are often bi-weekly. The 480 php hourly rate might apply to a daily worker, not live-in. A construction worker might get 500-600 and a foreman about 700 for comparison. A live-in maid gets less hourly but of course is provided room and board, health coverage, paid time off and paid trips home for fiesta. Most live-ins are not good at English and may not even work for white foreigners out of being ashamed but those that do often get paid much more because foreigners themselves feel ashamed paying such low wages and do not understand the wage scales here. So they may pay 10000-12000 php. In manila I would double these wage figures and cebu increase them by about 25% or so.

A very interesting topic and one the better half and I thought about for a couple of years. Contributed and asked the same questions many times. Finally employed one of our construction team through our build and extensions that seemed to powder the other workers asses and was with us here as one of the laborers for over a year, a guy that could/would turn his hand to any task as well as cleaning up after the pigs and their misgivings.

A few months after construction was complete Ben contacted him to ask. Yes was the answer and even his father thanked Ben for this opportunity and he will look after you and your needs, He has been with us for getting onto a year and while a quiet soul is a thinker/doer,,,,,, sh1t happens here and he is the boss. Dishes, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning...... Digging, painting, picking up the dog sh1t, shopping, hope he stays.

Now 21, 5 ft tall and weighs in at 52 Kgs, used to chuck a 40 Kg bag of cement on his shoulder and take it to the masons,,,,, I stopped him and asked the bigger guys to do that,,,,, health and safety.

Aside we are in a 1st class province and 5/6 hours from Manila and he seems more than happy with P400 per day, 6 days a week, he is very well fed, we pay his Phil Health and personal needs, he has access to a Mio for his/our needs, internet, Cignal and tv, A/C and his own private ensuite bedroom  space and freedom here/flexibility, freedom as he wants but a valued participant in our lives, his own, Happy home here. Labour is cheap here but to find a decent worker/all rounder takes time and a heck of of a lot patience.

Cheers, Steve. 

@bigpearl

Steve, in your area are employers expected to be in compliance with the Kasambahay Law RA10361 governing household help? That law requires employers to do a number of things involving paperwork such as creating an employment contract, setting up Phil Health, SSS and pag-ibig payroll deductions, 13th month (not bonus, just 1/12 of annual salary). In some but not very many places, the helper contracts must be registered with the barangay halls. Minimum wages are also specified but employers usually pay a lot more.

Here in Region VII, there are many household workers but no barangay registration requirements. Employers find it difficult to register employees with  phil health in Dumaguete but we can help and sign up to pay when employees initiate it, SSS is more difficult.

But most of the time employees prefer to be paid directly than have deductions for all of these benefits. One of our helpers who wanted them deducted had no birth certificate...in the rural provinces many people were born to midwives and some have no birth certificates without which you cannot get Phil Health.or SSS. There was nothing we could do.

Bottom line is, here we see employers paying Kasambahays around 8000php (less than your 10k) and we try to work with Phil Health to register as employer and pay if/when they apply; also, many already have Phil Health when they start. In practical terms it doesn't matter because when they get sick, we pay 100% of the doctor bill and the bill at a local private hospital if hospitalized (the local govt hospital is quite unsavory to Westerners). Employees need to initiate SSS  and Phil Health and none of us can handle pag big. We do not usually issue contracts because they don't want them; they want to not be held to a contract so they can leave at will and they mostly want all of those deductions in cash up front.

No Dan no contracts and like all the other workers here is verbal only.

Our live in caretaker didn't want a contract nor SSS, not even PhilHealth but we pay that for him quarterly at our cost and he has no say, @ P1500 per quarter is cheap.

He starts @ 7:30 am and finishes @ 5:00 pm, saying that he takes his 2 merianders @ 45 minutes each and lunch is one and a half to 2 hours and he lays in his bedroom and sleeps with the A/C. Dan he is the boss and knows what needs to be done and makes it happen, come 6 or 7 pm he is in the kitchen cooking with Ben, doing dishes, sometimes feeding the 2 Labs, like a family member I suppose.

His day off he mostly stays here and chills, his family is poor and from the local fisher mans village near Bens family. He shares a bedroom with 2 of his brothers with one stand fan blowing around, here is the Hilton for him and while we look after him he certainly knows which side the bread is buttered on. We purchased a late model Mio scooter for him to run errands as well as Ben helping him to get his learners permit and lessons.

He can walk away if not happy and I dearly hope that day never comes.

We look after him Dan and he looks after us.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Thank you for your inputs. It does sound like you have a great employee. The issues I am about to list fo kot apply to your employee who is like your family member or a certain helper we have who is above the norm but in practical terms, here is what you can run into with helpers:

1. Married helpers. BTW, we only had one male temp helper, a relative, and a ladyboy so much looking like a woman that even trumpers relent and call her "she":

Married helpers have one problem: Husbands. Husbands counsel their wives who by nature may be very honest, to steal things. Husbands make them take off days at arbutrary times pushing the limits of what employers will take. Husbands demand raises and think they know all the labor laws and how to complain to DOLE. The husband is the real boss..lI hate to say it but: IT'S NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE. DO NOT HIRE MAIDS WHO ARE NOT SEPARATED FROM THEIR HUSBANDS. But many ARE separated and that is OK.

2.Helper"s kids. Some helpers like to invite their minor children to work with them.  Child labor is no problem for them. But, it should be a problem for any Westerner. These kids belong in school and it is actually illegal to be alone with them, which is sometimes unavoidable and it only takes some neighbor to complain to the police about an inappropriate minor present with a Westerner and you end up in jail. It is OK for Filipinos to be alone with kids but not Westerners. Never allow them to bring their kids over.

3. Advances. Don't give advances. This is often coupled with 1. Husbands who may try to get as much as they can up front. Eventually they have to pay back so much that their salary is low so they dissappear. Don't report them to the barangay or try to find them; they have UTANG which is shameful abd it is better off you are not living than to be someone they owe. You have to let it go.

4. Personalities: Some people naturally get along; as employer, whether you are liked or not ahould not be a big thing. You will always be "sir" or "ma'am" and should never try to lower yourself to their level as a "friend" because that is not your status. You are rich and there will always be z barrier. If you join their level they be happy to welcome you but will lose respect, stop calling sir and will not work so hard anymore, after all, you are friends and the employer relationship is over.

.

As far as relationships amongst employees, I might suggest to never employ 3 females simultaneously. In that case, 2 Wil become friends and one will be the odd one out living a miserable existence. It is ok if you mix the genders but never 3 females at the same time.

I have more but enough for now. Hope this helps people thinking of hiring domestic help.

By the way, never ever have a romance with a maid.

No Dan none of the above except my name is Steve and while it took me/Ben 6 months to get him off the "sir" crap the respect never changed to this day. He is only 21, a very straight single bloke that is wise and able beyond his years, as said to replace him won't be easy but I'm sure that day may come.

Ben and I keep our private life and affairs well away from him and he respects our choice and privacy as we do with him.

To find an all rounder that can and does everything is a win and cheap to boot and I'm sure he will be gob smacked when Ben gives him his 13th month pay, he has earnt it.

Dan/readers I have bad knees and lots of pain for years and years, a battle but since our caretaker came along he does all the stuff I used to do and now I have no pain, rarely have fish oil or glucosamine and no pain killers for 8 months. I feel like I did 20/30 years ago and I have not put on weight, lol.

Find the right helper and you won't look back.

Cheers, Steve.

I will be visiting the Phil next yr. A friend has a place in Angono,Rizal. Could someone please give me an idea how much is the average hourly pay for a maid in that area? Thank you for your help. Grace - @gihcare

This topic has been raised several times before and, while it would seem to be of interest to expats, I think that the hiring of live-in domestic helpers by members of this forum is the exception rather than the rule. Filipinos hire all the time and also fil-ams but not regular expats on 9A visas. There is much to say on the topic but it can be a waste of time responding when the topic is irrelevant to all but a few. For that reason, I will be happy to contribute here and there but only by PM. Other than to Steve, it seems to be a waste of time commenting. For thise interested, the various FB groups discuss this actively.

Dan it seems not even the OP has responded and perhaps busy.

All I can say is if you are worried about the cost of hired help in a 3rd world country? I also take offence to labelling your employees as maids. Helpers, caretakers, driver or simply an employee is more apt and not derogatory, only my thoughts.

Dan I'm sure plenty of members on this site are reading and either not interested to contribute as they have bigger fish to fry.

Labour here is ridiculously cheap by western standards and one of the highlights of living in the Philippines as we enjoy every day.

Cheers, Steve,

@bigpearl

Dan it seems not even the OP has responded and perhaps busy.

Maybe. Don't care.

All I can say is if you are worried about the cost of hired help in a 3rd world country?

The title of the OP post is...wait for it...

Salary for a Maid

"Cost" was the OP's fundamental question and the reason for his post. We pay more than than the average for the region. Kind of a low blow, Steve.

I also take offence to labelling your employees as maids.

Salary for a MAID? Better go after the OP too.

When I met my wife in 1987 before getting married, she called herself a maid. She still uses the word. I guess you must be offended at what my Filipina wife calls her previous career. Sorry Steve, that one I can't figure out. A maid is not a job to be ashamed of, it is and always has been a respected and honorable career for women here. Ask my Filipina spouse.

Helpers, caretakers, driver or simply an employee is more apt and not derogatory, only my thoughts.

Maybe "helpers" but we never hired caretakers or drivers as those are totally different jobs.

Dan I'm sure plenty of members on this site are reading and either not interested to contribute as they have bigger fish to fry.

I know but then again I didn't start the thread. You yourself had said it was an interesting topic which, in part, motivated me to make a contribution.

Labour here is ridiculously cheap by western standards and one of the highlights of living in the Philippines as we enjoy every day.

Sure. Labor is still cheap but rising ever so slowly.  But I will tell you that, personally, we didn't move here for cheap labor or cheap rent; the only reason we moved here was because Bel's family is here and I had promised in 1988 to my wife, who had been a maid here, that we would finish our retirement years in the Philippines. If we had to, we could pick-up and move back to the States no problem, with their extremely high labor rates and deal with life in that environment as well, the same as everyone else does.

        My wife and her nieces who went to work in Hong Kong always referred to themselves as domestic helpers.  They were more than maids, did shopping and baby sitting, some food prep.  They were quite proud of their work and felt lucky to have jobs which paid better than the teachers were earning in Ilocos Sur, plus they got room and board.  Of course there was no healthcare nor any retirement program.  One niece came home retired and almost broke.  Since she got back to Santa she started paying into the Philippines so called Social Security.  Next October she turns 65 and can start collecting her SSA benefits.  She did manage to invest her extra money from Hong Kong in local real estate over 30 years.  She claims she could sell her land for 6 million pesos, live off that money for the rest of her life.  Will be interesting to follow.

    My wife and her nieces who went to work in Hong Kong always referred to themselves as domestic helpers. They were more than maids, did shopping and baby sitting, some food prep. They were quite proud of their work and felt lucky to have jobs which paid better than the teachers were earning in Ilocos Sur, plus they got room and board. Of course there was no healthcare nor any retirement program. One niece came home retired and almost broke. Since she got back to Santa she started paying into the Philippines so called Social Security. Next October she turns 65 and can start collecting her SSA benefits. She did manage to invest her extra money from Hong Kong in local real estate over 30 years. She claims she could sell her land for 6 million pesos, live off that money for the rest of her life. Will be interesting to follow. - @mugtech

My wife would use domestic helper, housekeeper, helper and other terms interchangeably and none of those terms would be demeaning. It is not the job of the college educated so none. Including maid, confer high status but the occupation is respected and honorable and not made fun of.

One issue may be the term "old maid" which is somewhat offensive. Also. In the US Webster dictionary there is a definition of a maid being a young woman who is a virgin and  nothing to do with work. Also in the USA, more common than household maids are hotel maids which are at every hotel performing maid service. The term is not derogatory in the commercial hotel context either.

But Hong Kong. being of English background. one might expect the wealtier employers referring to them in more formal terms as domestic "servants" kust as the very rich in the USA do, often giving them.maid's uniforms to wear.

We have known Hong Kong domestics as well. They make much better money than even teachers here as you say, which is the attraction of OFW here. I just checked and their MINIMUM wages is HK$5000.00 or about US $640.00 plus  mandatory food allowance of HK$1200.00, maybe US$ 150.00 but employer has option of providing meals. In Hong Kong I would expect average pay higher than minimum and variability in salaries based on nationality.  I used to travel there for IBM and the maids pay scales were higher for Singapore maids; less  expensive were indonesian maids. Some nationalities did nor provide maids at all. I suspect that lighter skin colors were more expensive...sorry but DEI never applied here. I suspect Filipinas regardless of skin color commanded more than Indonesians, Cambodians and Malaysians for example because they spoke ENGLISH which would be essential for many HK employers.

It is great that the lady put her saved capital in land. Very smart. We had the same idea years ago and made out quite well.