Maids Hours, Salaries & Extras- feedback please ladies!!!

Thanks everyone for your input! Have found a fab filipino housekeeper with impeccable British references & so far so good... Just FYI, this is what we have agreed on... AED 2000/month Fridays off 100AED/week for her own food/toiletries (my suggestion), paid Sunday each week. 8am-6pm 6 days per week We will swap a half day off for a nights babysitting if mutually agreable & organised 1 week in advance. 25 AED/hour for overtime if required. Coffee break mid morning & lunch break when ever she wants, or she can skip lunch break & finish 1 hour earlier on the nights she goes to bible class. No loans, but will pay her twice a month in arrears (2nd & 19th of each month) I occasionally top up her mobile phone at my discretion. She has her own single room with plenty of storage space & the rest from Ikea, TV, large fridge, bathroom. She cooks in our kitchen, has her own shelf in our pantry. It's a deal that seems fair, she's happy, I'm happy, the baby is happy, the dogs are happy! Now we've just got to keep communication open so that there's no confusion as we learn to work together. I had to register so that I can write my opinion to your discussion. Normally I just read the posts…. My maid came home last Friday asking for 40% raise!!! WHY do you ladies raise the maids salaries so much???? Five years ago all the maids were making 700-800 aed and they were happy! Emiratis are still paying 700-800 aed/month as of now. 700-800 is still a fortune in their country! Why are you paying 3 times as much?? I pay my maid 1,200, and can’t afford to pay more. I have to work and my husband has to work so that we can survive. We need a maid to help take care of the kids in the afternoon, I have no family to help me. You are putting us – employers who can’t pay 1,500-2,000+++ – out of the market. Before anyone tells me to go home if I can’t afford to live here, this IS my home, I have nowhere to return to, I grew up here, you are probably the one who is new here! You probably don’t understand how much you are hurting families who really need a maid. I am trying to understand why someone who doesn’t work even needs a maid?? You are putting us – families who are not here on big expat packages – in a big disadvantage and under a lot of pressure. Also, you are putting your maids sister or cousin or compatriots out of the market as well, since fewer families will be able to afford a a maid, and there will be much less jobs available. A few of my friends had to give up a maid, because they couldn’t keep up with the raising salaries. Now I understand why some employers don’t allow the maid to go out on their own or to even talk to other maids – they don’t want them to be influenced by some spoiled maids…. This has to be a joke, right? We don't understand how much we are hurting families who really need a maid? A few of your friends had to give up maids beacuse they couldn't keep with the raising salaries? Well, quite simply they cannot AFFORD to have a maid then...oh I know, let's keep paying them 800 dhs a month so we can afford it! :\:

Just noticed something : We will swap a half day off for a nights babysitting if mutually agreable & organised 1 week in advance. 25 AED/hour for overtime if required so basically if your lady is going to babaysit for you she will get 25 aed per hour overtime plus half a day off ?! nice !

Thanks everyone for your input! Have found a fab filipino housekeeper with impeccable British references & so far so good... Just FYI, this is what we have agreed on... AED 2000/month Fridays off 100AED/week for her own food/toiletries (my suggestion), paid Sunday each week. 8am-6pm 6 days per week We will swap a half day off for a nights babysitting if mutually agreable & organised 1 week in advance. 25 AED/hour for overtime if required. Coffee break mid morning & lunch break when ever she wants, or she can skip lunch break & finish 1 hour earlier on the nights she goes to bible class. No loans, but will pay her twice a month in arrears (2nd & 19th of each month) I occasionally top up her mobile phone at my discretion. She has her own single room with plenty of storage space & the rest from Ikea, TV, large fridge, bathroom. She cooks in our kitchen, has her own shelf in our pantry. It's a deal that seems fair, she's happy, I'm happy, the baby is happy, the dogs are happy! Now we've just got to keep communication open so that there's no confusion as we learn to work together. You are way overthinking this. You should not agree to swap 1/2 day off for one night babysitting etc or stipulate hours. You may find yourself paying a lot of overtime. Bref, chacun fait ce qui lui convient. Bienvenue a Dubai <em>edited by derien on 08/01/2012</em>

I have said this before but what you pay your maid should be your business and between you and your housemaid. I have not once disclosed what I pay my housemaid and dont intend to either. its my business. I have however told my housemaid not to do the same either and she is pretty clued up when it comes to stuff like this. discussing salaries from where I come is frowned upon and not the norm. DinaB I appreciate where you are coming from because I was in a pickle as not able to match the pay ladies who are in this country wanted. not just the pay but the benefits as well. Im certainly not providing a laptop or Pinoy channels on a LCD Telly in a bedroom ! so I opted for a GCC experienced out of country lady. she has her own privacy and she is happy with her salary.

Thanks everyone for your input! Have found a fab filipino housekeeper with impeccable British references & so far so good... Just FYI, this is what we have agreed on... AED 2000/month Fridays off 100AED/week for her own food/toiletries (my suggestion), paid Sunday each week. 8am-6pm 6 days per week We will swap a half day off for a nights babysitting if mutually agreable & organised 1 week in advance. 25 AED/hour for overtime if required. Coffee break mid morning & lunch break when ever she wants, or she can skip lunch break & finish 1 hour earlier on the nights she goes to bible class. No loans, but will pay her twice a month in arrears (2nd & 19th of each month) I occasionally top up her mobile phone at my discretion. She has her own single room with plenty of storage space & the rest from Ikea, TV, large fridge, bathroom. She cooks in our kitchen, has her own shelf in our pantry. It's a deal that seems fair, she's happy, I'm happy, the baby is happy, the dogs are happy! Now we've just got to keep communication open so that there's no confusion as we learn to work together. I had to register so that I can write my opinion to your discussion. Normally I just read the posts…. My maid came home last Friday asking for 40% raise!!! WHY do you ladies raise the maids salaries so much???? Five years ago all the maids were making 700-800 aed and they were happy! Emiratis are still paying 700-800 aed/month as of now. 700-800 is still a fortune in their country! Why are you paying 3 times as much?? I pay my maid 1,200, and can’t afford to pay more. I have to work and my husband has to work so that we can survive. We need a maid to help take care of the kids in the afternoon, I have no family to help me. You are putting us – employers who can’t pay 1,500-2,000+++ – out of the market. Before anyone tells me to go home if I can’t afford to live here, this IS my home, I have nowhere to return to, I grew up here, you are probably the one who is new here! You probably don’t understand how much you are hurting families who really need a maid. I am trying to understand why someone who doesn’t work even needs a maid?? You are putting us – families who are not here on big expat packages – in a big disadvantage and under a lot of pressure. Also, you are putting your maids sister or cousin or compatriots out of the market as well, since fewer families will be able to afford a a maid, and there will be much less jobs available. A few of my friends had to give up a maid, because they couldn’t keep up with the raising salaries. Now I understand why some employers don’t allow the maid to go out on their own or to even talk to other maids – they don’t want them to be influenced by some spoiled maids…. DinaB, I am sorry, but it is not your business how much I pay may maid (as long as I dont break the law).

Thanks everyone for your input! Have found a fab filipino housekeeper with impeccable British references & so far so good... Just FYI, this is what we have agreed on... AED 2000/month Fridays off 100AED/week for her own food/toiletries (my suggestion), paid Sunday each week. 8am-6pm 6 days per week We will swap a half day off for a nights babysitting if mutually agreable & organised 1 week in advance. 25 AED/hour for overtime if required. Coffee break mid morning & lunch break when ever she wants, or she can skip lunch break & finish 1 hour earlier on the nights she goes to bible class. No loans, but will pay her twice a month in arrears (2nd & 19th of each month) I occasionally top up her mobile phone at my discretion. She has her own single room with plenty of storage space & the rest from Ikea, TV, large fridge, bathroom. She cooks in our kitchen, has her own shelf in our pantry. It's a deal that seems fair, she's happy, I'm happy, the baby is happy, the dogs are happy! Now we've just got to keep communication open so that there's no confusion as we learn to work together. I had to register so that I can write my opinion to your discussion. Normally I just read the posts…. My maid came home last Friday asking for 40% raise!!! WHY do you ladies raise the maids salaries so much???? Five years ago all the maids were making 700-800 aed and they were happy! Emiratis are still paying 700-800 aed/month as of now. 700-800 is still a fortune in their country! Why are you paying 3 times as much?? I pay my maid 1,200, and can’t afford to pay more. I have to work and my husband has to work so that we can survive. We need a maid to help take care of the kids in the afternoon, I have no family to help me. You are putting us – employers who can’t pay 1,500-2,000+++ – out of the market. Before anyone tells me to go home if I can’t afford to live here, this IS my home, I have nowhere to return to, I grew up here, you are probably the one who is new here! You probably don’t understand how much you are hurting families who really need a maid. I am trying to understand why someone who doesn’t work even needs a maid?? You are putting us – families who are not here on big expat packages – in a big disadvantage and under a lot of pressure. Also, you are putting your maids sister or cousin or compatriots out of the market as well, since fewer families will be able to afford a a maid, and there will be much less jobs available. A few of my friends had to give up a maid, because they couldn’t keep up with the raising salaries. Now I understand why some employers don’t allow the maid to go out on their own or to even talk to other maids – they don’t want them to be influenced by some spoiled maids….

Bienvenue a Dubai ChampagneBlonde (quoique je prefere du rose et ratafia :)). It's a fair package you have offered, hope she will be happy and do a good job.

We are European with 2 school going kids, I don't work. We live in a 5 bedroom house. I hired a girl who came with great references from a European family. They were paying her 1700 and we started her on 2000, which includes an allowance for food. During school term, she gets up in the morning around 6.00am to help me organise lunch boxes and breakfast. She usually finishes by 6.30 or 7.00pm. She does not have specific rest hours during the day, I wanted to keep it flexible, but once her work is done, she takes a few hours off during the day and hangs out in her room. She works 6 days per week with Fridays off, so she usually finishes at 7pm on Thursday and starts again at 8am on Saturday. She can help herself to our food and mostly she eats what we eat, but I don't buy her specific food or toiletries. If we need evening babysitting during the week (Sat to Thurs) that is included in her salary. if we need her to work on a Friday, we will offer to give her Saturday off, but she always refuses as she wants to earn extra money. We pay AED 25/hr for additional babysitting (which I think is too much now, probably 15 to 20 aed seems to be what others pay their maid if they are paying extra, some people I know, have all additional hours included in the monthly salary). We rarely use her for babysitting during the week, Friday night seems to be our night out, so we always end up paying additional. We always give her a little extra bonus when we have visitors staying. She gets 1 month holiday and 1 paid ticket home per year. I give her an end of year bonus (but that is discretionary) of 1 month salary and a bonus at christmas. She works on public holidays, but so far she has had about half of them off as we didn't need her. We kitted out her room with a small fridge, TV and DVD player, small bed, chest of drawers, bedside table, some storage boxes for under her bed (all furniture was bought from Ikea). We got her filippino TV channels in her room, the agreement was we would pay for the installation and she would pay the monthly fees, but in the end we don't bother to deduct the fees from her salary, I think it's about 70AED. I buy her about 100 Aed worth of phone cards per month, but this also is discretionary, it was not agreed as part of her contract. She is really great, very sweet and we are happy with her, but the biggest hassle had been her asking for loans within a few months of her joining us, so we have now made it very clear and told her absolutely no loans. If loaning money or advancing salaries will bug you, (it really annoyed me because it was a constant request) then tell whoever you are interviewing that no loans or no advances and not to ever ask, later you can change your mind if you decide to. I agree with EVERYONE who says, start on the low side and offer incentives as you go along, present a schedule/ work week/ work day that is longer than you expect and then you just have the hours you need, rather than starting on the minimum side and then hassle if you think it is not what you need, it can cause a lot of resentment on both sides if either of you thinks you are being 'cheated'! You will be the hero and the best employer ever, if you tell her she needs to work 6 days a week and some weeks you only need her 5 or 5 1/2 days so you give her an extra day off. Same with public holidays, no problem if she knows up front they are included in her salary, she will be over the moon when you give her the 'extra' days off. Hope this helps, Good luck with it all edited by mum2girls on 19/12/2011 edited by mum2girls on 19/12/2011 Sadly they never think you are a hero............

Thats a very good package you have offered her .. very good indeed .. based on the hours that she is working. I would have personally started her off on 1500 aed and depending on performance increased it slightly. Hope she works out .. good luck :)

My maid gets 2100 dhs/month (all included : food+doctor+phone+bbsitting). She has her own room+bathroom, starts at 9.00 and finishes around 7pm with one hour break for lunch. We have a 4 bedroom house but she doesn't have to take care of the gardening however she has to wash the cars (that was the deal for this year when we increased her salary). She has 1 month summer holiday, fridays off. Usually we give her 2 days for Eid, 1 for Christmas, 1 for Eastern (she is christian). She has been working for us for 3 years and is great with my 2 kids (she can play football with my 8 year old boy and do painting, puzzles and artcraft with my 5 year old daughter).

Really PB, she earns about Euro500/per month. plus some extra. Maybe I have written something incorrectly and it looks like she earns more !! I do think we do pay a bit on the high side for here, but all my husband's colleagues and some of our friends pay in the 2k range. Plus our last help in another country was about USD1200 per month, so we thought it was a bargain when we came here.

We are European with 2 school going kids, I don't work. We live in a 5 bedroom house. I hired a girl who came with great references from a European family. They were paying her 1700 and we started her on 2000, which includes an allowance for food. During school term, she gets up in the morning around 6.00am to help me organise lunch boxes and breakfast. She usually finishes by 6.30 or 7.00pm. She does not have specific rest hours during the day, I wanted to keep it flexible, but once her work is done, she takes a few hours off during the day and hangs out in her room. She works 6 days per week with Fridays off, so she usually finishes at 7pm on Thursday and starts again at 8am on Saturday. She can help herself to our food and mostly she eats what we eat, but I don't buy her specific food or toiletries. If we need evening babysitting during the week (Sat to Thurs) that is included in her salary. if we need her to work on a Friday, we will offer to give her Saturday off, but she always refuses as she wants to earn extra money. We pay AED 25/hr for additional babysitting (which I think is too much now, probably 15 to 20 aed seems to be what others pay their maid if they are paying extra, some people I know, have all additional hours included in the monthly salary). We rarely use her for babysitting during the week, Friday night seems to be our night out, so we always end up paying additional. We always give her a little extra bonus when we have visitors staying. She gets 1 month holiday and 1 paid ticket home per year. I give her an end of year bonus (but that is discretionary) of 1 month salary and a bonus at christmas. She works on public holidays, but so far she has had about half of them off as we didn't need her. We kitted out her room with a small fridge, TV and DVD player, small bed, chest of drawers, bedside table, some storage boxes for under her bed (all furniture was bought from Ikea). We got her filippino TV channels in her room, the agreement was we would pay for the installation and she would pay the monthly fees, but in the end we don't bother to deduct the fees from her salary, I think it's about 70AED. I buy her about 100 Aed worth of phone cards per month, but this also is discretionary, it was not agreed as part of her contract. She is really great, very sweet and we are happy with her, but the biggest hassle had been her asking for loans within a few months of her joining us, so we have now made it very clear and told her absolutely no loans. If loaning money or advancing salaries will bug you, (it really annoyed me because it was a constant request) then tell whoever you are interviewing that no loans or no advances and not to ever ask, later you can change your mind if you decide to. I agree with EVERYONE who says, start on the low side and offer incentives as you go along, present a schedule/ work week/ work day that is longer than you expect and then you just have the hours you need, rather than starting on the minimum side and then hassle if you think it is not what you need, it can cause a lot of resentment on both sides if either of you thinks you are being 'cheated'! You will be the hero and the best employer ever, if you tell her she needs to work 6 days a week and some weeks you only need her 5 or 5 1/2 days so you give her an extra day off. Same with public holidays, no problem if she knows up front they are included in her salary, she will be over the moon when you give her the 'extra' days off. Hope this helps, Good luck with it all edited by mum2girls on 19/12/2011 <em>edited by mum2girls on 19/12/2011</em>

I would not take the example below as a typical arrangement. Average salary is nearer AED1500- AED1800 depending on nationality and experience. Some people pay extra for babysitting at weekends but others assume this is included. Live in maid should have their own room which you will need to furnish for them with the basics. All the terms are really up to you re food toiletries etc. Some people will just ask their maid to choose what she needs while doing the weekly shopping, others give an allowance. I have a full time (5 days a week 730-6pm) live out maid, which I prefer as it avoids some of the issues above and means she treats our house as her place of work only. We sponsor her and pay her extra for accommodation and transport - just another option for you to think about. Some of the other posters with live in maids can give you details of their experiences which will help Good luck

Hi, we have a Nepalese maid who we brought to Dubai on our sponsorship so we pay her salary plus air ticket plus medical / visa costs... Me and my husband both work full time so she is pretty much responsible for taking care of our house and 5yr old DD... She is usually up around 6am and goes off to bed by around 10pm... we don't have any 'fixed' work timings as such but she usually keeps herself busy doing things around the house or playing with our DD... she does watch around an hour's TV in the afternoon and probably another hour in the night but we haven't restricted this in anyway and since we live in a 3bedroom apartment she doesn't really have any 'gardening' or 'outdoor cleaning' to do to take up time... Her salary is AED 1000/- per month... and she gets 1 month off per year, plus every Friday off... we purchased bed, linen, toiletries for her at the start and replenish these toiletries every month... she also shares our food (and we're lucky in this matter since we're Indian and eat pretty much the same type of food)... we haven't thought of a bonus yet since she's only been with us for 9 months now... but will probably give her a month's bonus at the end of her one year contract... She is EXCELLENT and other than her constant mobile phone conversations (which I'm told is a common thing amongst most of the househelp) we really have no issues with her... she's great with our daughter, is a very good cook, gets along well with our family and friends and overall is quite a help around the house! She shares a room with our DD (has a bunk bed so DD sleeps on top and she sleeps on the lower bunk)... and has her own cupboard... but no TV... she just shares the common TV we have in the living room... Not sure if any of the info above will be of use to you but if you need any more info let me know... All the best with your new recruit :) I just wanted everyone's experiences on having live-in help; *What hours they get their maids to do (each day or per week) *Salaries offered & rates for overtime/bonuses *Do you buy their food/toiletries etc- do you set a monthly limit for this? *Kitting out their room- TV etc? Any other useful tips would be so appreciated at this point! Merci Beaucoup et Joyeux Noel