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….
