Holiday Pay

2thebeach

New member
May 7, 2010
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I have a maid come in twice a week for 3-4 hours each time. I pay her 450 peso per day which I've been told is good pay considering the few hours she works. She doesn't come in when her days fall on a holiday (like Tuesday's). Am I still supposed to pay her for the holiday day that she didn't work?
 

Anastacio

Banned
Feb 22, 2010
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I would have thought that would depend on your agreement with her. If she is prepared to come to work on the days agreed and you tell her to take the day off, holiday or not then I'd expect you pay that day as you are voiding the agreement. If she demands national holidays and you want her in then you need to agree this with her. I expect everywhere has different policies, I didn't used to get get paid for national holidays, but it was my decision to take them off, others went in and got paid.
 

2thebeach

New member
May 7, 2010
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Thanks for the info. We hadn't ever talked about it actually, but she just left me a message that she wouldn't be in on Tuesday. I hadn't even realized it was a holiday up until that point :).
 

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
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This is a case where you need to make an executive decision. Do you want to follow the Code or do you want a happy employee, especially since we are only talking about US $11.50. According to the Labor Code, domestic employees are not covered by the Code except for the right to 2 weeks annual vacation and Christmas pay. You are not permitted to tell her to take the holiday as a vacation day because vacation time cannot be fractioned into periods of less than 1 week. She would be entitled to 2 days pay for a complete vacation week as she works twice weekly.

Again, you probably don't have to pay her, but is it worth it????

From Fabio's summary:
Vacations cannot be fractioned for periods shorter than a week and may not be replaced with additional payment or any other form of compensation (Art. 182). The salary for the vacation period must be paid by the employer on the day prior to the beginning of vacation (Art. 181).
Domestics do not benefit from many of the provisions of the Labor Code (Art. 4). Domestics are defined as workers dedicated to household chores, such as cooking and cleaning, when carried out outside of a business (Art. 258). Condominium employees are not considered domestics.

Domestics are not subject to any regular work hours although every domestic must have a minimum of nine hours per day of uninterrupted rest and a weekly rest of 36 hours without interruption (Arts. 261 and 262). Domestics do not have the right to receive severance pay when dismissed. However, domestics do have the right to two weeks of paid vacation a year after their first year at work and to receive a Christmas salary as regular workers do.
 

Anastacio

Banned
Feb 22, 2010
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Best get it sorted to avoid future problems, just get formally on the same page, make life easy for yourself.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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What if the holiday falls on a day she does not work ?????????

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Precedent ?
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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she clearly expects to be paid or she would come in and do the 3-4 hrs and enjoy the rest of the day watching telemicro and cooking rice and beans.

I don't read that into it...... she doesn't want to work on a fiesta..... punto!

As my Chinese friends say............ 'No tickee -- no shirtee'
 

Anastacio

Banned
Feb 22, 2010
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she clearly expects to be paid or she would come in and do the 3-4 hrs and enjoy the rest of the day watching telemicro and cooking rice and beans.

Nah, families who work rarely get the same day off to spend together drinking and dancing, I don't know many apart from Colmado owners who will work on a holiday.
 

belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
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Our cleaning lady came to work on tuesday, but was not in the great mood she normally is. At the end of the day, I discovered it apparently was a national holiday. As soon as she discovered I did not know this, her mood changed to her old happy self. She did not really want the holiday as her husband had to work anyways.

I did compensate by buying them a nice bottle of brugal, so they could have a party in the evening.
 

Bob K

Silver
Aug 16, 2004
2,520
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Is she a good worker?
Worked for you for a period of time?
Is she reliable?
Would you hire here again?

If yes then pay her even if not legally bound to do so.

Bob K
 

Gordon

New member
Jan 24, 2011
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I have a maid come in twice a week for 3-4 hours each time. I pay her 450 peso per day which I've been told is good pay considering the few hours she works.

I struggled with the rates of pay for a long time. Many people told me that 100 to 150RD an hour is good pay. I always tried to include the golden rule concept as well. I broadened my search to determine what was "good pay" and it did not always make me feel more comfortable about paying the domestic help what others told me they paid. After experiencing several house cleaners that were useless or dishonest or just plain annoying, when I finally found one that was honest, knowledgeable and so hard working, I began to pay her 200RD an hour and later 250RD an hour for time worked and I expect to pay additional benefits as well.

I know my worker is well liked and respected in her own community and that she has two children at home and one attending technical school elsewhere. I do not hand out this rate of pay indiscriminately to all domestic staff. As she uses money earned to assist with giving her children an education she earns a bit more respect in my view. I am not a wealthy person but I hope to be able to pay her adequately as time goes on. And I would not reward her with alcohol as a bonus.

I also discovered that often if I mentioned my rate of pay first to other employers I found more people seem to say they pay similar rates or even more. I wonder if the ones that pay a higher wage do not mention it easily for fear of others wanting to hire those staff away as they must be good or maybe protect the ability to maintain low rates of pay or just embarrassment as the majority seem to pay "pretty hard to live on" amounts.
 

Anastacio

Banned
Feb 22, 2010
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:cheeky:What is a wealthy person? Someone who can say 'I do not hand out this rate of pay to all Domestic staff' is probably wealthy! No?:cheeky:
 

Acira

Silver
Sep 20, 2009
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www.blazingfuries.com
:cheeky:What is a wealthy person? Someone who can say 'I do not hand out this rate of pay to all Domestic staff' is probably wealthy! No?:cheeky:

People who come here to settle down and hire staff for their house(s) and grounds or take over staff from previous owner and give them their bonus and their yearly wage increase, and when things get worse in their personal life for some reason or another, can continue to do so because the employees are depending on it or at least when things really get worse, give those people the severance pay (even for domestic help) which they deserve for working so many years for them.
Those are wealthy and responsible people in my eyes.
 

Criss Colon

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Jan 2, 2002
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yahoomail.com
250 Pesos An Hour Is Way To Much!!!

If she works 45 hours a week,that is about 45,000 a month!
Doctors don't make that!!

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Gordon

New member
Jan 24, 2011
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do doctors have 45 hour billings? my doctor was a local one and charged me 500 RD for a 10 min consult. His kid was the receptionist and he worked out of his house. so he must be very rich according to your calculations.
that is 3000RD an hour. so 45 hours would be?
 

Acira

Silver
Sep 20, 2009
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If the minimum wage is not respected by some, why are you bothered by somebody who is maybe paying above it?

My brother has had a minimum education because he loved to work instead of sitting at school, I have a higher education level then him because I loved to go to school.
He worked whole his life (still is) in a factory, 7 day's shift with a strict regime of a maximum of 38 hours per week and had 45 days of holiday while I worked 'regular' day time shifts with sometimes 80 hours per week and had 21 holiday day's and still my brother was making more money then me. I am not jealous of his job, its more physical demanding whilst mine was more mentally demanding.
The both of us have never complained, we earned both very good but still he earned a lot more then me.
 

Gordon

New member
Jan 24, 2011
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I bet if they paid the street police a salary they could live on without being forced to supplement the country would improve.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
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we have a part time maid, she comes twice a week and gets 1700 bi-weekly. frankly i do not give a f**k what time she arrives and how much time she takes to do her job. i only care that she does it and that i can trust her with the keys.
i have gotten used to dominican ways so not coming when it rains frog ain't a problem. not coming in time of dominican holidays no problem. she'll simply have more to do when she comes next time coz i ain't cleaning and i definitely ain't ironing, baby!
i dutifully pay her 1700 every two weeks but she will get not a peso more even if next time she takes 24 hours to iron my dresses because she missed one visit.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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DV8.......... we have 3x a week.......... 400 pesos a day..... the happiest employee you ever saw

2400 every 2 weeks....

Works any day ...all day.... does dinners.... the whole enchillada