Maids and Nurse and Personal Care attendants - Cost of.

We used to have a live-in maid about half a year ago. She was 19 years old. She was referred to us by one of my parents' former maids. She was in Sultan Kudarat prior to her employment with us. We paid for her airfare to Manila. She had 3 years' experience prior to working for us. Monthly pay was PhP5,000 / month. We paid for SSS, PagIbig, PhilHealth benefits (approximately PhP500), as required for by law. We gave her a 13th month pay. She had her own room and adjoining bathroom.

We provided free meals, electricity, water, toiletries, cleaning / laundry detergent for her clothes, wi-fi access, radio, tv with TV Plus in her room. If I were to put an amount on that, it would be at least PhP5,000 /  month.

Initially, we agreed that she could have the equivalent of 4 half days off per month (or 2 full days off), but we allowed her to take 4 full days off to attend ALS (alternative learning system) classes on Saturdays. (She only completed up to grade 5 of schooling, and completing ALS would be equivalent to completing high school.) We are easy-going employers, so we allowed her to also take additional days off when she needs to attend other activities in school, without deducting from her salary. I even helped her with lessons and homework.

Everything was going well for around 6 months. Unfortunately, her circle of friends at school put things in her head. Believing that she could work as an SM sales lady after completing ALS, her ego got bloated. She would wake up late and sleepy, most likely from spending time on social media and using facebook messenger all night, thus she forgot to do certain things. She would often disappear into her room. So I reminded her that she is still under my employ and that she should do her job properly. She developed an attitude. I told her to lose it because it is disrespectful.

I found posts with my 7- and 10-year-old children's photos (two of them without their shirt on), of the house, that her employers were foreigners, and also where we live. So, I asked her to remove those posts. But instead of doing so, she blocked us from seeing her original fb page, and created another fb account with very few posts, and told us that she removed the posts.

We found out the deception when one of my friends found our pictures on her fb page. She also bashed us, saying some nasty things about us, that she didn't need our money. So I took screen shots.

I told her that I could have her jailed for her posts. I had her log on  to her fb account and I personally removed the posts and pictures pertaining to us. As I was doing that, I kept receiving messages from foreigners, all of them male, commenting on her sexy selfies. We fired her the same day.

It was heartbreaking because we showed her kindness, and in return, we got stabbed in the back. She told me before that at her previous employer, she wasn't allowed to leave the property, not allowed to talk to other maids and driver unless if it's about work, sleeping on the floor in the kitchen while she waits for her employer to arrive late at night. I guess us being lenient has drawbacks.

She has blocked us again from her facebook account.

Typical. No matter how much you give it is never enough.

Our first maid was 16 years old and stayed with us 1 year up to the time we discovered she had robbed us money. The second one was 19 years old and stayed 4 years.  She was very good and one day we told that we wanted to offer her a course in college.  She was jumping of joy!  The following day she elopped with her boyfriend! We never understood why. The third one, 20 year old, stayed 2 years then got pregnant! The fourth, 20 also stayed 1 month because we discovered she was practicing black magic rituals and things like that...  So after these experiences with very young maids we decided to select much older ones with more experience so more expensive. The actual one is with us for 10 years already.  We pay her 5000 pesos,  plus SSS, plus Philhealth and she has all her Sundays free.

Maids, we had one for one Month, she got payed went to visits parents and never come back, she had her own room too, second one was much the same working 2 months make some cash go back and never come back, third one again few months boy friend dements her back, now we have one Lady mid 40s, doing washing and bit of cleaning one time a week only, works well the rest we do it our selfs, no headaches this time. here to find maid is like wining lotto, but yet they have no jobs and they will never get one, all comes to been so lazy for work, but not for other things.

  probably they saw that you were so judgmental they preferred to leave you    They could not stand anymore a guy coming from the FIRST world 

Around five years ago, my kids and I got lice, or kuto (pronounced as "coo"- toh) in Tagalog, from a newly hired yaya. It was horrible. I asked the yaya why she didn't tell us. She said she thought it didn't matter because it was very little. Haha.

Well, at least it happened during the kids' summer break. At some schools, students who are found to have lice will not be allowed to go to school for a week or so.  They must be free of lice or nits before they can attend classes.

We combed them out and used lice shampoo. We also washed all the towels, sheets, pillows and cases, including the sofa pillows,  and vacuumed the sofas and chairs. In less than a week, lice were gone. That was the last and only time we had lice.

The fine-toothed combs we found here in the Philippines were made of wood. Its teeth broke easily. I found a nice stainless steel comb on amazon.com from the National Pediculosis Association in America. I bought 2 of them. I routinely run the comb through my and the kids' hair, especially when our scalp feel itchy.

So, when considering to hire someone as a house helper or nanny / yaya, check, or at least ask, if they have lice. Get a lice comb and routinely use it on your and your family's hair, especially if you have school-age kids.

FilAmericanMom wrote:

I found posts with my 7- and 10-year-old children's photos (two of them without their shirt on), of the house, that her employers were foreigners, and also where we live. So, I asked her to remove those posts. But instead of doing so, she blocked us from seeing her original fb page, and created another fb account with very few posts, and told us that she removed the posts.

We found out the deception when one of my friends found our pictures on her fb page. She also bashed us, saying some nasty things about us, that she didn't need our money. So I took screen shots.

I told her that I could have her jailed for her posts. I had her log on  to her fb account and I personally removed the posts and pictures pertaining to us. As I was doing that, I kept receiving messages from foreigners, all of them male, commenting on her sexy selfies.

We learned from this experience. I think next time we hire a housekeeper, we will not allow that person to bring cellphones with cameras, including smart phones. (Old-school cellphones without cameras are still okay.) I would suggest the same to my friends and family planning to hire a maid.

geolefrench wrote:

So after these experiences with very young maids we decided to select much older ones with more experience so more expensive. The actual one is with us for 10 years already.  We pay her 5000 pesos,  plus SSS, plus Philhealth and she has all her Sundays free.

You are lucky.

Providing SSS, PagIBIG and PhilHealth benefits to a housekeeper is required by law.  . You do have to get registered as an employer, add the housekeeper as an employee, and pay the premiums monthly or quarterly. When the housekeeper leaves your employ, you will need to remove him / her from your list.