Nannies

[berries]

Hi, I wondered what the going rate is for an English speaking nanny and what kind of working hours and duties are normal. I find friend's of mine are quite cagey about how much they pay their nannies and what they actually get them to do and I haven't yet worked out if that's because mine is overpaid and underworked or underpaid and overworked. Thai's tend to be more honest - they're appalled at how much I pay my nanny and think she should be working more than she does.

My nanny is Burmese and speaks moderately good English and fluent Thai. She works from 7 in the morning until 6 at night with at least one hour break, six days per week. I have two children, one age 3 and the other age 1. She tends to look after them both on her own from 7 until 11 in the morning, she then has an hour's break for lunch. My oldest sleeps for most of the afternoon so she looks after the baby, usually with help from either myself or my husband. She has one housework duty to do everyday according to the weekly schedule. She cleans the floors and does the ironing when both kids are asleep. She is live in and we pay her 10,000 a month salary plus 100 baht a day for food (12,400 per month). I give her an annual bonus of 12,000 baht making for an average monthly salary of 13,400. She gets 10 days paid holiday a year and last year I gave her 2000 for her birthday and 2000 for christmas. If she works past 6 and we are not at home, I pay her 200 baht regardless of how many hours I am out for (the kids go to bed about 7 so she's just sitting watching tv).

What about you?

[Boo]

I dont know where you are based but from my own conversations about hiring a nanny/housekeeper in future in Issan, you are paying a lot of money especially for a live in. For this money my husband (thai) woud expect them to do all the cleaning (sweep & wash floor daily, make all beds & clean bathroom & kitchen, do the dishes & wash all the clothes)

If you are happy with her though & feel she is worth every baht then it doesn't matter as your childs welfare & how much you trust her is more important that her salary IMO.

But FYI we looked at getting a full time cleaner for the MIL as they are all getting on a bit & was told that the 3.5k baht a month we would have to pay someone to come in for 6hrs a day was too much so don't bother (this from the MIL herself) so hubby goves her the money instead & the house continues to be rank dirty

[berries]

She definately does do all the cleaning - she just does it to a schedule of one job a day: dusting one day, the yard the next, bathrooms on two days, beds once a week. We are quite a tidy household (even my 3 year old likes nothing better than a bit of sweeping and dusting) so once a week is enough to give things a major clean. She also cleans up after the kids on a daily basis. We usually take the kids out on a Saturday and leave her in the house to do some extra cleaning too. I just know myself how unbelievably exhasuting it can be looking after two tots (and you will soon Boo!) and I want her focus to remain on them rather than on housework. I would rather come downstairs and see her reading to my kids than cleaning while my kids entertain themselves. I think a clear distinction has to be made between a maid and a nanny. I wouldn't pay a maid any more than the 3 or 4 thousand you mentioned - in fact I would do it myself - just like your MIL! Both my husband and I work full time so we have no choice but to have a nanny.

[leisurely]

I think you are paying her more than I would, but then mine are older than yours. Strictly speaking (IMHO) you don't have a nanny, you have a maid/nanny. Nanny's are soley employed to care for children - but that is just semantics. As long as you are happy with her work and your children, most importatly, are happy with her, carry on. I imagine she thinks she's died and gone to heaven!

[Nawtilus]

Way to much.

Our maid/nanny does everything, any time. 2 days off a month and its a flat 6k per month, live in and thats it, 2 kids also and she been with us for 3 years, so not like she not happy with it. We also just found another one, same deal, but probably will not hire her now.

[berries]

Way to much.

Our maid/nanny does everything, any time. 2 days off a month and its a flat 6k per month, live in and thats it, 2 kids also and she been with us for 3 years, so not like she not happy with it. We also just found another one, same deal, but probably will not hire her now.

And can she speak English? Surely someone who can speak English could get a job that pays more than 6,000 a month? We did start her off on 8,000 but after a month she told us she'd been offered 10 by someone else. She may well have been playing us but we fell for it and matched it. Her previous employer paid her 11,000 a month. Apparently the employer's rent bill was 160,000 a month so her salary was a drop in the ocean that they probably didn't have to think about too much. I am quite happy paying her what we do but I was just interested to know if the deal she was getting with us is good enough for her to stick around for as long as we want her too.

[Sunbelt Asia]

Way to much.

Our maid/nanny does everything, any time. 2 days off a month and its a flat 6k per month, live in and thats it, 2 kids also and she been with us for 3 years, so not like she not happy with it. We also just found another one, same deal, but probably will not hire her now.

And can she speak English? Surely someone who can speak English could get a job that pays more than 6,000 a month? We did start her off on 8,000 but after a month she told us she'd been offered 10 by someone else. She may well have been playing us but we fell for it and matched it. Her previous employer paid her 11,000 a month. Apparently the employer's rent bill was 160,000 a month so her salary was a drop in the ocean that they probably didn't have to think about too much. I am quite happy paying her what we do but I was just interested to know if the deal she was getting with us is good enough for her to stick around for as long as we want her too.

In the past 90 days, we have processed over 100 work permit applications for nannies. 90% of them were from Philippines and the average salary they get is 10,000 Baht per month. The range was 8,000 Baht( only two of them were getting this) to 15,000 Baht per month ( one nanny was getting this much).

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

[Nawtilus]

Beries...she can speak some english and the second one we did not just employ, also spoke english, not great english, but ok.

The thing is, people on expat salaries etc do not really care what they pay, coming here from O/S and even paying 15/20k a month for someone to do everything is a bargain to them.

As in anything, some are wiser to all of this when being employed by farangs and will milk it for what they can.

If your happy with what you get for what you pay, then leave it at that. Your question as to if she would stick around for that amount, yes she should for sure, but if she pulls the neighbour offered me 12k routine, you know now that you can call her bluff and let her go. I bet she stays.

Also many nannies/maids will not go back to working for thais after working for a farang, reason being more cash and the thais generally treat them in the class they believe they should be, whereas most farang usually treat them much better and appreciate their work etc.

Our nanny, while only on 6k, is still more than some others I know, farangs that are in the know and will not pay the increased farang surcharge so to speak, I know one on 4k and another on 5k. Our nanny has also been to many places she would not have gone with a thai employer or on her own. We even take her out to eat with us some days. She even gets a bigger ice cream than me at swensons.

As for flip maids on 10 to 15k, why would you want to, unless you were a farang couple and wanted the very good english of course.

[berries]

As for flip maids on 10 to 15k, why would you want to, unless you were a farang couple and wanted the very good english of course.

That's exactly why. I had a non-English speaking Thai nanny when my oldest was a baby and her language developed at a much slower rate than is typical. We paid her 7000. We also did the taking her out to eat thing and treating her like a member of the family but it all started going to her head. Within a couple of months she was refusing to eat any Thai food and was instead tucking in to all my imported cheese and breads from Villa. I'm sure she didn't actually enjoy the food - it was just the image that she liked! She even started dressing like me. It was very Single White Female so she had to go. Anyway - I'm going off thread. We are a Thai/Farang couple but I want my kids to have as much English as possible. They have Thai all around them outside the house so I really value having a nanny who can communicate with them in English when I am at work. My baby son's speech has actually developed at a quicker than usual rate and I put that down to the change in nanny. In fact, when we had the non-English speaking nanny I used to send my oldest to a pre-school which cost 800 baht day and Gymboree twice a week at 500 baht a pop - now that we have a good nanny she gets enough stimulation at home and the classes have stopped so it's actually cheaper in the long run!

[sylvafern]

Yes, you are paying a lot, especially compared to the salaries that university graduates get who can speak English very well (e.g. my son's father only got 8000 baht a month for his first job after graduating - went to a college that was 100% English language .... that money was supposed to cover everything - transport, food, etc). However, in my experience, good maids and nannies are extremely difficult to come by so if you are happy with the one you've got and can afford to pay that much for her, then stick with her. I am on my 3rd maid in three months - they just never seems to stick around - I pay decent money too - 5000 baht for 3 days a week - no nanny duties and only two people in the house - me and a 2 year old. Overpaid in comparison to what I've paid in the past, but still they don't stick around. Best maid I ever had was Burmese. She stayed with us for 2 years til she disappeared one day but would take her back in a second if she ever contacted me.

[Nawtilus]

Understood. That maid sounded like a laugh, could see her at home wearing your lingerie and sipping wine while watching telly all day.

Burmese can make very good maids/nannies, good with kids and all. But often they get nervous and run off if they do not have visas.

[manjara]

We pay our maids (we have 2) 6k and 3k respectively. The second one has just started so we don't pay as much (the first has been with us almost 3 years. We have 2 daughters, 3 and 1 years. We employed a second one because the first was exhausted taking care of both babies and cleaning too!

Both maids live in, and eat the same food we do (it's nearly all thai anyway, except the odd pizza and italian from Limoncello)

We give 1 month salary bonus at New Year.

They do nearly all the cleaning, washing, shopping for food (except the trips to Tesco/Tops). They are on call 24 hrs a day, and take care of our second daughter at night. Holidays?! hah!

My (Thai) wife thinks they have it easy!? Well, they don't clean very well, but they do take care of he kids well.

My first daughter goes to nursery locally, which is Thai speaking. We used to send her to an English place, but it only ran in the holidays, over songkran and after.

She now speaks Thai and refuses to speak English, even though she does understand. She knows I understand most of what she says in Thai, so she probably thinks, why bother with English.

I don't like that aspect of it, and we have decided to start her in English school after the end of the school year.

I'm not too worried about the language thing though. My mother was Danish, yet I grew up speaking English. In the end, I learnt to speak Danish pretty well, though perhaps not fluent. But I never spoke Danish with my mother, and she only spoke to me in Danish before I was 3. Kids learn a lot, but not all of it is immediately apparent.

[berries]

Understood. That maid sounded like a laugh, could see her at home wearing your lingerie and sipping wine while watching telly all day.

A definate possibility. I used to live in a serviced apartment and I came home one day to find the male housekeeper putting on my make-up - now that was funny!

[think_too_mut]

We pay 6000B for the nearby nursery. 6 days a week.

Our girl is there, comes back with dances and games we could not teach her. Even challenging us.

Professional educators look after her daytime. And it shows.

When upcountry, she is so advanced that other kids make a way for her.

I wonder if a Burmeese, Vietnamese or any nanny could do that.

Her grandmother could not.

[t.s]

I pay 12,000 baht pm for a excellent english speaking nanny with 20 years experience. she has recommendation letters from the german embassy where she did a few turns with embassy staff children.

she takes care of all household accounts, the baby, shopping and she cooks excellent thai and decent farang food. she is willing to clean, and does but we have a maid too.

she maintains her own apartment nearby, but sleeps in during the work week and is avalable 24/7. she did not want a day off, but we kick her out on weekends though she often babysits on fri/sat nights. her previous employers were korean , and when they left they recommended her to their replacements, but she found us while eating noodles on the street, liked the kid and was willing to drop her salary from 14 to 12k.

say what you will about that being expensive, but peace of mind usually is.

ts

[Helene]

I pay my maid/nanny 8,500 baht per month. She works Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm. She doesn't live with us. She speaks very basic english so we do a lot of hand gestures! I have two boys, 3yo and 6 months. I am a stay-at-home mother so we share the household chores. My maid washes and irons our clothes, does general cleaning and looks after the baby. I do all the cooking. I clean (bath/shower) and feed (breakfast/lunch/dinner) both my children. When my maid stays back for an hour or two, I give her an additional 100 baht. For overnight stays, 150 baht and for Saturday or Sunday, 500 baht per day. My husband travels quite a bit so during those times, I ask my maid to stay at the house with me. The last time my husband was out of the country for one month, I paid my maid 17,000 baht.

[t.s]

I pay my maid/nanny 8,500 baht per month. She works Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm. She doesn't live with us. She speaks very basic english so we do a lot of hand gestures! I have two boys, 3yo and 6 months. I am a stay-at-home mother so we share the household chores. My maid washes and irons our clothes, does general cleaning and looks after the baby. I do all the cooking. I clean (bath/shower) and feed (breakfast/lunch/dinner) both my children. When my maid stays back for an hour or two, I give her an additional 100 baht. For overnight stays, 150 baht and for Saturday or Sunday, 500 baht per day. My husband travels quite a bit so during those times, I ask my maid to stay at the house with me. The last time my husband was out of the country for one month, I paid my maid 17,000 baht.

peng peng. lucky maid.

[think_too_mut]

I'm not getting it. Why would anyone want or need a Thai or whatever speaking nanny?

Is a mother so busy? What is she doing?

From this thread, looks like the people who hire nannies do that because they can - could be part of their expat package and they simply consume it. Some even reported paying twice average salary in Thailand.

Once, at the Benjasiri park (known as Queen's park, next to Emporium) while my daughter was playing there (not any more, the playground is worn out and dirty and a dump and even dangerous) I met a Thai nanny who was looking after a farang boy.

Where do they live? She pointed into a direction of 150+ K baht apartments.

People who hired her work for Unicef.

Those saying that only less than 30% of all the donations to Unicef go to those in need, may be right.

The rest appears to be going to unnecessary expenses.

Edited February 11, 2007 by think_too_mut

[hucus]

We (farang couple) pay our live-in nanny/maid 9k a month. Actually we plan to pay 9k per month as the maid is working for us for about tree weeks.

Befour that she was employed by our neighbours for 6k.

She primary takes care of our 7 months old daughter. Also she do cleaning job in the morning.

Our other neighbours have a maid for 12k per month. She live-in and takes cares of two kids (1 & 7 y.o.).

After few months of work she went for holiday and come back with her 4y.o. daughter. She hid her for few days in her room untill the neighbours discovered the girl by an accident! So now she is a live-in with her daugher.

The neighbours are also a farang couple.

They ordered the maid from Bangkok maid agency as an English speaking. But it turned out that her English is very limited to few basic words. Anyway the neighbours themself are far from fluent English speakers.

We tried to find an English speaking maid but didn't know where to get one so accepted the current one.

Actually it turned out that 5-10 English words she know is more then enough to give her simple commands.

We also have next-door farang-Thai neighbours who can help us in translation in a hard case. However its rarely needed.

Actually Thai language is not that hard to learn. In few days I learnt it enough for very basic conversation.

[Helene]

I'm not getting it. Why would anyone want or need a Thai or whatever speaking nanny?

Is a mother so busy? What is she doing?

From this thread, looks like the people who hire nannies do that because they can - could be part of their expat package and they simply consume it. Some even reported paying twice average salary in Thailand.

Once, at the Benjasiri park (known as Queen's park, next to Emporium) while my daughter was playing there (not any more, the playground is worn out and dirty and a dump and even dangerous) I met a Thai nanny who was looking after a farang boy.

Where do they live? She pointed into a direction of 150+ K baht apartments.

People who hired her work for Unicef.

Those saying that only less than 30% of all the donations to Unicef go to those in need, may be right.

The rest appears to be going to unnecessary expenses.

I don't know about other families but in my situation, hiring a maid/nanny is an absolute necessity. As I have mentioned previously, my husband travels a fair bit. We have no family here in Thailand. We are here because of my husband's job. I gave birth to my 6 month old baby here. He is not an easy baby to take care of. On top of that, my three year old became very jealous and wanted my constant attention. I would like to take care of my two kids myself, but it is not possible all the time unless I grow two more arms. My oldest son has allergies to eggs, milk, nuts and a few other things so I prepare and cook everything he eats. He also has eczema. He is a high maintenance child. My youngest son is starting to eat solids now too so I also cook and puree his food. I have to be careful with what he eats as well because he could also have allergies. We rarely eat out or buy outside food. My husband is wonderful and helps out when he is in the country but when he is away, who would save my sanity? I have no family here and I have even fewer friends.

We pay our nanny out of our own pockets. She is not part of my husband's salary package. We don't have a driver either. I think paying our maid B8,500 is fair for the amount of work she does and I do realise that B17,000 is a bit excessive. However, we have no other option when my husband goes overseas. On one of the times that he was away, our three year old got sick, initially with cold, cough and then it developed into asthma. I had to keep a constant eye on him especially at night to make sure that his asthma doesn't get worse. I also had to be prepared in case I need to rush him to hospital. At the same time, my baby was waking up and crying every two to three hours. My maid was a great help during that time.

Two weeks ago (husband away again!), I had a car accident. I had my two sons and my maid in the car with me. The driver who hit my car didn't speak english and neither did the insurance man who came out to help me. I know very little Thai and I certainly cannot converse in the language. My favourite Thai words are "poot thai mai dai". My maid told the insurance man where to find us, explained what happened and made sure the other driver didn't run off.

[t.s]

I'm not getting it. Why would anyone want or need a Thai or whatever speaking nanny?

Is a mother so busy? What is she doing?

in my case she is working. is that so hard to fathom?

dreadfully sorry to hear you are not getting it.

Edited February 12, 2007 by t.s

[MsFigure]

I'm not getting it. Why would anyone want or need a Thai or whatever speaking nanny?

Is a mother so busy? What is she doing?

Why??? Because they can

[chanchao]

Whoa... You're paying your nanny more than all of our office staff!! No offense, I mean good for her and all that.

We pay 3500 baht, soon to be upped to 4000 which many consider too much, but I think it's kind of essential to be paying slightly over the odds if you want your staff to stick around and not move elsewhere on a whim or the prospect of getting 100 baht more.

I have to add that speaking English is not a requirement for me. She does speak very good Thai, which IS a requirement. Another absolute requirement is that she's completely legal to work. The penalties for employing an illegal alien are VERY severe, including a couple years in jail for the employer. That's not the sort of thing you want to mess with.

[bob4you]

My sister in law who has been Nanny for over 10 years works through agency in BKK and her pay was B10,000 per month as full time (6 days a week) substitute mom, the clients always had housekeepers and gardners besides Nanny.

She just took a job here in Pattaya for her first Farang couple paying B10,000 per month but 7 days a week, she has own room and TV but must buy her own food as the Irish couple do not eat Thai food. She is excited to be working for a Farang couple taking care of 10 month old son but still close to other sister in law who lives in Pattaya and my wife and I who commute between Udon Thani and Pattaya.

[helicoptor]

This thread interests me as we will be looking to hire a nanny over the next six months, we have a 10 month old and my fiancee is expecting again (3 months gone), people have suggested Phillipinos are the better workers, more conscientious in their duties, I cannot comment as I do not know first hand.

My partner will be doing part time work and at the moment we have a phillipino who is willing to help while my partner works mornings although this is only a temporary thing

Where is the best place to hire a nanny (Pattaya area)

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