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 Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:34 pm
So as most of you know I am currently in Hong Kong with my boyfriend, staying with his oldest cousin and her husband and son. And her maid.
I've never had a maid before but in Canada they show up once a week, dust and leave. This maid lives in the house, in the same room as a bed but isn't allowed to sleep on the bed. She sleeps on a marble slab that's meant for sitting and watching out the window. She looks after the kid, picks him up and drops him off from school, she cooks whenever she's asked, she cleans all day long, she gets two days off a month. She does laundry and if you ask her, she'll run out to the store to buy you food.
For all this, she gets paid about the equivalent of $800 Canadian a month.
Her contract includes that she gets to go back to Indonesia once a year, plane ticket paid for by the homeowner. The $800/month includes that ticket.
She also has to pay for her own food.
She can't eat with the family. She makes food for them, and then eats in the kitchen.
And on top of this, she gets yelled at almost daily for the stupidest stuff. The other day, she didn't microwave something to the homeowner's liking and she got yelled at for like 20 minutes, receiving phrases like "We're people, not PIGS!"
TL;DR
A maid's life in Hong Kong is a rough one.
So I ask of you, would you hire a maid to do all those things for you?
If you did, what would you consider fair treatment?
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:01 pm
She sleeps in a room with a bed but isn't allowed to sleep in the bed? Who is the bed for then and is she allowed to purchase her own bed for the room?
$800 a month isn't bad pay if she doesn't have to pay for rent there as well, if she has to pay rent as well for the place then $800 may not be enough depending on how much rent is.
I wonder how often she may have not microwaved it to the one person's liking. If it is the first time yea it is a stupid time, but say it is the 10th time then I agree on the homeowner being a bit unhappy and yelling at her (although the words chosen was a bit uncalled for).
I don't agree with the only 2 days off a month though, that is pretty harsh I think. Also what happens if the maid gets sick, how does the treatment of her go from the homeowners? I understand she would possibly have to pay for her own bills on that matter, but is she forgiven or forced to work through her illness?
I myself would treat a maid with a little more dignity and more like she is a human herself and not a pig overall in this comparison though. (yes i understand the owner was yelling the family isn't pigs and humans)
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:30 pm
Asylum Renegade She sleeps in a room with a bed but isn't allowed to sleep in the bed? Who is the bed for then and is she allowed to purchase her own bed for the room? $800 a month isn't bad pay if she doesn't have to pay for rent there as well, if she has to pay rent as well for the place then $800 may not be enough depending on how much rent is. I wonder how often she may have not microwaved it to the one person's liking. If it is the first time yea it is a stupid time, but say it is the 10th time then I agree on the homeowner being a bit unhappy and yelling at her (although the words chosen was a bit uncalled for). I don't agree with the only 2 days off a month though, that is pretty harsh I think. Also what happens if the maid gets sick, how does the treatment of her go from the homeowners? I understand she would possibly have to pay for her own bills on that matter, but is she forgiven or forced to work through her illness? I myself would treat a maid with a little more dignity and more like she is a human herself and not a pig overall in this comparison though. (yes i understand the owner was yelling the family isn't pigs and humans) $800/month isn't bad pay if you're working a 40 hour week. It is when from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed you're scrubbing floors, dusting tvs, doing dishes, serving food... And if you finish all the work, you start again because you're not allowed to stop. Not sure how sick days work.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:46 pm
Live in maid? I'd pay at least $1200/month USD, weekends off, one half paid vacation day a month (cumulative), room and board, maybe a health insurance package. I'd be nicer to my maid than my girlfriend, too. She's an employee after all, not a relative. She shouldn't be expose to my natural belligerence like a life partner should.
Of course, that kind of attitude is probably why I can't afford things like live-in maids.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:54 am
I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did this to another human being.
But the reasons, I am sure, also lies in culture, laws and tradition
Since you and I are from the west, this seems horrid and grotesque to us.
But it's probably quite accepted in Honk Kong, and the homeowner probably doesn't even think twice about yelling at the girl if she doesn't do exactly what she should...
This of course doesn't make it more right, but it's a whole culture that needs to be changed, and maybe this is her best option for getting money
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:21 pm
Stitched Alice I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did this to another human being. But the reasons, I am sure, also lies in culture, laws and tradition Since you and I are from the west, this seems horrid and grotesque to us. But it's probably quite accepted in Honk Kong, and the homeowner probably doesn't even think twice about yelling at the girl if she doesn't do exactly what she should... This of course doesn't make it more right, but it's a whole culture that needs to be changed, and maybe this is her best option for getting money Yeah. I actually had to consider the vast culture difference the other day when some other relatives were calling this maid lazy haha. Maybe by the standards here she is. o_O
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:33 pm
If I had to much work to do I may hire a maid to do some of the extra work that I don't have time for like dusting and vacuuming but otherwise I'd do it myself. As for fair treatment as long as she is competent enough to do her job right and depending on how much and what kind of work she is doing I'd make sure to pay her a decent amount and I most certainly wouldn't be yelling at her.
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