What Should I Pay........

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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What should I pay a young lady to work in my home 6 days a week from 8-6. What is the rate these days. Thanks.
 

helpmann

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May 18, 2004
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Cook? Housekeeper? Nanny? Pool Girl? Modeling??

Snuffy said:
What should I pay a young lady to work in my home 6 days a week from 8-6. What is the rate these days. Thanks.
What kind of work will this young lady be doing?

-Helpmann :laugh:
 

nyteryda3

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Jul 29, 2006
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I am currently living in a 3-bedroom apartment(fairly large) and my roomates and I pay $2000 pesos(total) a month for our maid to come in 3 days a week to mainly clean and some light cooking.
 

Eddy

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Jan 1, 2002
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Snuffy said:
What should I pay a young lady to work in my home 6 days a week from 8-6. What is the rate these days. Thanks.
Between 4,500 and 5,000 per month. Maybe a little extra for her transportation.
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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Eddy...I was thinking 5000 also. However, I currently pay her 4000 pesos. That is the rate my wife's friends quoted her. Only I have a problem with it. I think it is not enough. If I can get this girl up to speed where I want her then I will increase it to 5000. I want someone who will come in and they know what their job is and they do it without me having to point out discrepancies all the time. So far I have not achieved this. She refuses to think for herself. I told me wife, I'm not paying someone that I have to supervise all the time. She uses her brain or she goes.
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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Problem is, Snuffy, is that you know more about how to do her job than she does..andyou want her to do it like you would do it if you were to do it!!:p

Be patient. Buy her three or four uniforms. don't yell at her, (I know you too well to think that you would) and repeat it three times. After that, you can tell her that she is on the way out.

Good luck....remember the Chinese serving dishes i bought? Well, one got burned recently...what was it? Three months ago?? That/s life here, unfortunately. That is why i don't bring down any of my antique stuff....

Bless you for being so nice..

HB :D:D
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Snuffy said:
I want someone who will come in and they know what their job is and they do it without me having to point out discrepancies all the time. So far I have not achieved this. She refuses to think for herself. I told me wife, I'm not paying someone that I have to supervise all the time. She uses her brain or she goes.

Repeat three times, the Hillbilly says. Ha!

Snuffy, I sympathise ... some things you're going to have to accept, and other things you're going to have to hide. These are the things that I've not managed to teach to the person who cleans for us...

- not to splash buckets of water over the walls - splashing water does not clean, elbow grease and scrubbing cleans
- bleach is not meant to be splashed all over the wash
- it is not necessary to use more washing power when the bag is full, and less when the bag becomes empty.
- kitchen knives are for specific purposes. Steak knives are not meant to have the little sharp points bent over, there are other ways to open a can
- the knife thing is a problem - knives are not all purpose tools, and I get really mad if you clean the grout between the tiles with my vegetable paring knife
- floors can be mopped without standing puddles of water
- teflon pans are not meant to be scraped clean with a teaspoon
- the kid does not need that goo stuff all over her hair
- our food is good to eat - there is other food besides rice and beans
- it is valid to serve coffee in big cups with milk and sugar
- sugar is not meant to go in fruit juice
- no, we are not going to clean the bathrooms with acid

So, I've come to terms with the splashing water thing, but I hide the bleach. The good knives and utensils are locked away. I don't use the teflon pans. The goo stuff for hair is banished (yes, she does still bring some for the kid but the kid is now big enough to scream and run when the goo jar comes out). Sugar is rationed. I've been partially successful with the coffee - it now comes in a big cup, with un chin sweet coffee in the bottom of the big cup. :laugh::laugh:

My next effort is the linen closet. I'm going to try to get the sheets, the towels and the tablecloths separated. It's a real drag to have to scratch between the tablecloths to find a towel. One should just be able to lift one up from the top of the pile? No?
 
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canadian bob

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Jan 16, 2002
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Over the years we have hired/fired numbers of maids, they all had their own idiosyncracies. We were most considerate, gifts of clothes, food to take home etc. We have a clothes washer (maid NO Toca!) which eliminates the detergent/bleach problem. We learned that salads are universally disliked by maids. One who liked to do a bit of garden work (& was terrified of our whipper-snipper,) insisted on using a colleen (machete) & refused to use my garden trowels, etc. Be gentle.... we live in a different world!! Good luck... Canadian Bob
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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Thought I would give you an update

Well....we had our apartment broken into. We moved. We live in a nice little house in a nice area. And all is working out fine. I should have done this long ago. Oh and in about four months we are going to have a new addition to the family...and it's a girl.

The young lady working for us. She is coming around quiet nicely. She has somewhat taken charge and goes about her job without having to be told what to do. She finally understands what I want. I still pay her 4000 but have told her that twice a month I will pay her 500 more if I think she is doing a good job. So far so good. It works out good for her because I pay the 500 pesos in between her paydays and so I am sure it helps her get along. Now also she eats breakfast and lunch in our home....so I hope that she only needs a small amount in the evening for dinner and that she can maybe save a little money. We also bought her clothes to work in and shoes. And my wife gave her a stack of older clothes. So do I pay her enough or should I pay a little more? I don't want her to just scrape by. The only problem is that she has this sister and this sister has this husband who does not work and I believe this young girl has to give money to the sister and the husband...who by the way is a young man who says there is no work. I find that hard to believe. But anyway...I just don't want this young girl to just be scraping by while she does a good job for me. I can afford to do what is right. The girl sure looks a lot better since she has been working for us. She looks a lot happier. So I think she is doing okay at home. You think Im paying her enough?
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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I agree with all the 'damage control' comments........:classic: and yes it is a different world. But jewels do exist, those who don't scrape the teflon with knives, use their initiative etc etc. When you find one, treasure them. Ours has been with us 11 years. She had all the makings of a being a jewel when she took over from her mother whose skill was the redistribution of dirt rather than the elimination of same. A little bit of on the job training and she positively shone. I haven't needed to supervise anything for the past 7 years. But boy did I notice it when she had a medical problem and some 9 months sick leave. I had to start over with a succession of replacements. Fortunately, she is now back with us.
 

Eddy

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Jan 1, 2002
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Eddy...I was thinking 5000 also. However, I currently pay her 4000 pesos. That is the rate my wife's friends quoted her. Only I have a problem with it. I think it is not enough. If I can get this girl up to speed where I want her then I will increase it to 5000. I want someone who will come in and they know what their job is and they do it without me having to point out discrepancies all the time. So far I have not achieved this. She refuses to think for herself. I told me wife, I'm not paying someone that I have to supervise all the time. She uses her brain or she goes.

It is extreemly difficult. Over the past 20+ years, we've had maybe 3 that were really what a person would expect. It's trial and error. Talk to some people you know, maybe they have somone to recommnend. And yes, in 90%of the cases you will have to be on their backs. But then again, that's not only the maids. I enjoyed reading some of the previous posts. (How true it is LOL) One last thing, don't be overly friendly with them. They must understand that you are the BOSS and they are your employee. In a lot of cases, once you become their friend, they will try to take advantage of you in more ways than one. I've had to fire a few for that same reason.
 

Larry

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Mar 22, 2002
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You think Im paying her enough?


Yes, you are paying her enough. When I first started reading the thread, I was going to suggest 5000 rd per month. My roomate and I have a girl come in 3 times per week and we pay roughly 2,500 per month.

I think the idea of paying her 4,000 with the extra 1,000 as an incentive is a good idea. She knows if she wants the extra 1,000 she has to produce.

Don't make the mistake of thinking," Well, she does such a great job that I want to give her a little raise". It could very well have the adverse effect as I found out when I tried the same thing with our maid. Don't assume that by giving her more money, she will appreciate it and that will translate into her continuing to do a good job. The thought process is different here. You seem to have a good worker and a winning formula so I say, "if it ain't broke, dont fix it".

Larry
 

Eddy

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Jan 1, 2002
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Yes, you are paying her enough. When I first started reading the thread, I was going to suggest 5000 rd per month. My roomate and I have a girl come in 3 times per week and we pay roughly 2,500 per month.

I think the idea of paying her 4,000 with the extra 1,000 as an incentive is a good idea. She knows if she wants the extra 1,000 she has to produce.

Don't make the mistake of thinking," Well, she does such a great job that I want to give her a little raise". It could very well have the adverse effect as I found out when I tried the same thing with our maid. Don't assume that by giving her more money, she will appreciate it and that will translate into her continuing to do a good job. The thought process is different here. You seem to have a good worker and a winning formula so I say, "if it ain't broke, dont fix it".

Larry

And that's a big 10-4
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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Thanks...good to know I'm on target.

If I see her slacking I will put the hammer down and not fire her but let her know I'm not happy. I simply will not pay her the 500 pesos one time. It is impossible for me to treat her like she is not in some way part of the family. As I have mentioned...her parents died when she was very young and in an environment of extreme poverty your family is all you got. There must be somewhere within her an emptiness because of that loss. So I will work to achieve a happy balance where I include her but let her know that she, like myself and my wife, has a job to do within the family and everyone has to do their job. Anyway, so far so good. Thank you.
 

karienina

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Jan 18, 2006
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I think I?ve been lucky with the person that works with us, a very nice 50 years old woman. We pay her a lot according to what we?ve heard (8000) but believe me she?s worthy. Does all the cleaning, washing and cooking, she is excellent. Arrives at 7:00 am and by the time we get up (8:30) she is got half the house already cleaned, by 10 the entire house is perfectly SHINING. No buckets of water splashed over the walls.
Does the bedroom. Laundry: checks the clothing for stains and divides the hand-wash clothes, the rest into the machine. No bleach or chemicals, for stains always uses old recipes from her mother. I don?t know how she manages but our clothes are free from stains, the white one is whiter and the color does not fade. At 11:30 starts doing lunch and includes EVERY DAY salad, menu varies and if my husband or I want to eat a specific meal, we teach her how (ONLY ONCE). Knows what Teflon is. In the afternoon does the ironing and hang the clothes in the closet. By 3:30 she?s done and asks if there?s anything else I want her to do. Then she leaves.
I forgot, as she knows we love fruit, always lives peeled fruit in the fridge for us to eat at noon (pineapple, mango, guava, apple, banana?.).
As she is so good, honest, polite, we treat her like one of the house, eats with us, if she is hungry; she can grab whatever she wants in the fridge. No Do?a or Don is aloud, only the name only. Give her food and clothes to take home for her and an 8 years old child she is raising (not hers).
 

london777

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Dec 22, 2005
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What are the rules regarding liquidaci?n for:
--- full-time domestic staff?
--- part-time domestic staff?

if:
leave they voluntarily?
they are sacked (UK) let go (US) for laziness, incompetence, or dishonesty ?

Also do you pay the "thirteenth" month? (I appreciate many employers will give gifts at Christmas or all-year round, but I am asking only about a cash bonus entitlement).

Also do any of you insure to cover such staff being injured while in your employ? This is presumably not obligatory, but is it advisable?

Thanks.