What is average of maid or nanny in DR? What should or should not do to hire a nanny or a maid? Should I get the nanny or maid to sign paper or omething to avoid getting sued? Since we just moved in to the country, we still need to learn a lot about the living style here. Thank you!
- Thread starter CFA123
- Start date
Part time maids... salary/legal obligations?
if a maid works two days a week for 5 hours, would it be expected to purchase medical expense coverage? if so what level of coverage and would you add on dependant coverage? where is the best place to purchase such coverage? other benefits perhaps that are within the scope of what a part time employer should consider whether required by law or not?
My housekeeper works approx 8 hours a day and i pay RD$8,000 a month plus holiday, xmas bonus and overtime.
Get them to open a bank account and also sign for their money each month stating for what period you are paying for, nothing fancy just something that has your name a cedular on as well as their own. When holiday is paid they should sign for it and it must state for what it is you are paying. that way when its time for dismissal or resignation there are no problems.
I do try and treat my housekeepers well as at the end of day if though you are not legally obliged to pay severance they work damn hard and for very little money.
Get them to open a bank account and also sign for their money each month stating for what period you are paying for, nothing fancy just something that has your name a cedular on as well as their own. When holiday is paid they should sign for it and it must state for what it is you are paying. that way when its time for dismissal or resignation there are no problems.
I do try and treat my housekeepers well as at the end of day if though you are not legally obliged to pay severance they work damn hard and for very little money.
Referrals are best. I think most people in this thread went to far into it with the legal stuff.
A live-in or 5 days a week becomes an employee, but someone coming once or twice a week and paying cash each day or twice a month isn't a big deal, IMHO.
I pay 500 for one day of work (including laundry) for a three bedroom apartment with 2 people, a cat, and a dog. No one is home when she is working typically, and we have no problem with that.
A friend pays the same girl the same amount twice a week for three bedrooms, cooking, laundry, 3 adults and a baby.
A live-in or 5 days a week becomes an employee, but someone coming once or twice a week and paying cash each day or twice a month isn't a big deal, IMHO.
I pay 500 for one day of work (including laundry) for a three bedroom apartment with 2 people, a cat, and a dog. No one is home when she is working typically, and we have no problem with that.
A friend pays the same girl the same amount twice a week for three bedrooms, cooking, laundry, 3 adults and a baby.
I have a maid that works for me 4 days per week, from 8am to 2pm, and she gets paid RD$3,500 twice per month. I pay her vacation pay (paid out, she does not want to take it) and one month X-mas salary.
One note, as I said on other posts, be very careful with severance pay when 1) the house is on a company name or b) you have occasional or regular vacation rentals in this house = this can mean, in the eyes of the labour court, that your house is running as a business and not as a private residence, so your maid is then considered an 'employee' (with liquidation pay rights) and not a 'domestic helper.'
Keep in mind that when you get sued for severance pay, the other lawyer will throw in 'unpaid overtime' and other sheninagans in order to get the law suit up two or three times the amount of the severance pay.
One note, as I said on other posts, be very careful with severance pay when 1) the house is on a company name or b) you have occasional or regular vacation rentals in this house = this can mean, in the eyes of the labour court, that your house is running as a business and not as a private residence, so your maid is then considered an 'employee' (with liquidation pay rights) and not a 'domestic helper.'
Keep in mind that when you get sued for severance pay, the other lawyer will throw in 'unpaid overtime' and other sheninagans in order to get the law suit up two or three times the amount of the severance pay.
550 RDS for one day a week, working day from 9am until 5pm. Since she lives quite far, we go and get her and bring her back. She does the laundry at her house for which we pay an additional 200 RDS and we buy the washing powder and softner. Holiday and 13th month will be paid also.
I have a maid coming in 2 times per week for about 4 hours each time. I asked her what pay she wanted when she started and she said $450 per day. I was happy to oblige as I just came from Canada and being able to even afford some house help made me happy! My lawyer told me to have any contract or part-time help sign a factura when we pay them in order to avoid liquidation problems. We pay her twice a month and just get her to sign a receipt. Apparently to avoid problems we were told to just put 'for services' on the receipt.
since I have received no response to my question earlier, I shall assume that no one buys these ladies any medical coverage.
I pay 700RD for five hours work and she gets a tremendous about of work done not only working hard but so organized - amazing actually. A real bargain. She has three children at home and I am of the mind I should be giving her some sort of health care coverage on top. not sure if it is feasible for part time employees as the cost might be disproportionate to her number of days working.
I pay 700RD for five hours work and she gets a tremendous about of work done not only working hard but so organized - amazing actually. A real bargain. She has three children at home and I am of the mind I should be giving her some sort of health care coverage on top. not sure if it is feasible for part time employees as the cost might be disproportionate to her number of days working.
I pay medical coverage for our maid as I have included her as a company employee. So she also cleans at the office and sits there saturdays until noon and answers the phone.
Its not at point right now, that's why I didn't mentioned it but as soon as we hired this lady, she is working for us now about two or three months, we were thinking about insurance as for us its a simple thing, she works very hard and does a very good job and we don't want her get harmed in any way and if such should happen, we want her to be covered.
How do you go about that, we have the same questions? How do you insure your cleaning lady for 8 hours work? Is that specified in the contract that she works those hours for you and that the insurance will only pay for accidents or whatever happening during her working hours at your place? I think those are valid questions since most personnel works for other employers also who maybe not giving their personnel any medical coverage and our concern is a bit that by us doing the right thing, the other employer gets of the hook and can shake off any responsibility that any accident happened during the hours she works at the other house, that employer could be saying, no it did happen at your other employer, not my responsibility.
How do you go about that, we have the same questions? How do you insure your cleaning lady for 8 hours work? Is that specified in the contract that she works those hours for you and that the insurance will only pay for accidents or whatever happening during her working hours at your place? I think those are valid questions since most personnel works for other employers also who maybe not giving their personnel any medical coverage and our concern is a bit that by us doing the right thing, the other employer gets of the hook and can shake off any responsibility that any accident happened during the hours she works at the other house, that employer could be saying, no it did happen at your other employer, not my responsibility.
Last edited:
Acira, I do not insure yet and only wanting to. So far John is the only one that has indicated some people do provide coverage. I only have a verbal contract and she requested fewer working hours as she travels 30 min each way at her own expense. I started off quite slowly and found she is exceeding expectations and I would like to return the privilege.
I have some friends in Canada that hire a maid team (they most often work in teams only in the "civilized" world for safety and liability reasons) and the service is both very disappointing and expensive.
I have some friends in Canada that hire a maid team (they most often work in teams only in the "civilized" world for safety and liability reasons) and the service is both very disappointing and expensive.
Gordon, we knew the lady before hiring her, saw her work and just know that she is a hard working, very honest lady and very loyal . After asking if she wanted to work one day for us, she didn't hesitate a moment because she knows us too very well and she surely could use the extra money.
She gets from us, I think, a fair wage and after calculations it was cheaper to get her and bring her back by car and she has the laundry to take with her also, but now we face the questions of the medical insurance. We are going to talk to our insurance guy about this and the whole surrounding situation and I will put his answer here also. If you decide to go ahead with it, I would appreciate your answer here also, thx.
She gets from us, I think, a fair wage and after calculations it was cheaper to get her and bring her back by car and she has the laundry to take with her also, but now we face the questions of the medical insurance. We are going to talk to our insurance guy about this and the whole surrounding situation and I will put his answer here also. If you decide to go ahead with it, I would appreciate your answer here also, thx.
What I have done is add to my DR homeowner's policy what we call in the US a 'Workman's Compensation" Rider. This covers me for liability in case of injury in my home by any household worker i.e., maid, gardener, fix-it man. I see that many feel a moral obligation to obtain medical coverage for their maids, but expecting to find a policy that will only cover them when they are actually on your premises is not practical. Also expecting them to obtain a seperate policy from all of their employers is not practical. If you want to make them a gift and feel good that you did a good deed, pay for their health insurance. But the cost will be disproportionatly high compared to their salary. Most would rather have a raise and go without insurance. Also, are you going to insure her kids??? spouse???? Take out the Workman's comp. and let it go.
But that's when you own a property right? At the moment we still rent and that will be for another year or so depending. Where can I get more information about this DR homeowners policy?
And you are right, in our case the insurance is not in proportion to the one day wage so we gave her for now the wage increase that was installed a couple of months ago, we talked about it with her and she is very happy with it. For the record, the cleaning lady is not asking us about insurance, we are thinking about it.