Employ A Maid

[armortec]

Can I employ a day time maid to do my laundry, cleaning and washing in Greater Bangkok and where and how to find one?

What is the salary going to be? Are there maid agencies online?

[armortec]

Maybe this is not the correct forum. Anyone with experiences in maids employment please help me. Thank you so much.

[austen]

Hi there--just sent you a PM regarding an ad I saw today in BK Magazine for a maid agency (wasn't sure if posting it would be against the rules or not). Have a look, and hopefully this will give you something to start with anyway. Good luck!

Edited May 24, 2005 by austen

[Ajarn]

Can I employ a day time maid to do my laundry, cleaning and washing in Greater Bangkok and where and how to find one?

What is the salary going to be? Are there maid agencies online?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where are you staying? In an apartment, ask your manager, security, other maids you might see in the building. Usually the safest kind of referrals, I think. Many will have friends looking for this kind of work, I would feel sure.

I don't know the pay in Bkk for a maid for one day. Here in Chiang Mai, I pay such workers 250 baht per day. Typical monthly salary for live-out is from about 4,000, it seems.

[armortec]

Thanks Austen and Ajarn.

I will try to look around for contacts too.

It seems live in is cheaper than daily rate of 250 bht.

[tlpeng]

Just spoken to someone who has been living here for 7 years. They employed one live-in Burmese maid at B$4500/month just looking after their 4 children. Another live-out Burmese maid at B$5000/month to cook and clean the house.

Earlier I asked those "cleaning staff" in my mooban regarding rates and was told that THAI maid STARTS from $B6,500/month now.

One in our mooban is gettin $B8000/month... live-out.... no cooking. Just to look after a 8-year old.

Also, another neighbour has a $B10,000 live-out Burmese maid but she can speak good English. She only has to look after a 2-year old.

My conclusion - salary really ranges from low to high.

[TokyoT]

This is a topic that I thought I was going to be faced with in regard to my pending move to Bangkok. Fortunately the condo that I will be renting includes a maid. The owner of the condo (westerner) is moving, had the same maid for several years (over 5), wanted to make sure she kept the job so he included it with the condo.

Too early to comment on how she will work out. But hopefully this will help be avoid any problems that I might have had otherwise.

Some words of warning that I picked up as I begin to explore this topic:

Make sure you are clear on what services are included, if necessary get an interpreter to help in this regard. For example the maid that we have does not hang around the condo all day. She comes in everyday does the basic cleaning (dusts, sweeps, dishes, straightens, etc) – similar to what you get from the daily cleaning of a hotel room – only for the entire condo. She is more than happy to do other things (such as ironing and even running errands for a very reasonable extra fee). Is the maid responsible for cooking? Food shopping? Other errands?

Make sure you are clear on time of services. When the maid will come to the apartment (mornings, afternoons, all day). If it is important to you that you or your/wife girlfriend are present when the maid in is the apartment then timing can become a very important issue. Do you expect here to work certain hours or can she come in do her job and leave?

Make sure you are clear on the days of service. Some maids will work 3 day weeks (Mon, Wend, Fri – or Tues, Thru, Sat), some will work 5 days, some six, and some even six days plus half day on Sunday.

If you have kids make sure all parties are clear on what will be expected of the maid in regard to the kids (usually not a big problem for infants as Thai people (pretty much most women everywhere) like to spend time with babies). Some maids prefer not to be responsible for any duties in regard to the kids – feeding, changing, bathing, etc.

Some of the above are why you will hear many different price ranges. Obviously if the maid only comes three days a week, does not cooking, and only basic cleaning, then the monthly price is different than a maid that works six full days a week plus half a day on Sunday, does all the cleaning (including laundry), irons, cooks, shops, and helps to take care of the kids.

At the bare minimum level of service around 3-4,000 Baht. For the whole kit-n-kaboodle 10,000 Baht and up.

Some other factors that can effect prices:

Live-in vs live-out – the numbers are shifting more and more toward live-out maids

Lunch – is lunch included/ provided by you or is the maid expect to go get or bring her own (can be a rather big issue if you and the Ms are both Farang and do not care to have the maid cook Thai food everyday for lunch.

Transportation – if you can work out a deal with someone else living in the same building or a close by building then you can work out a deal on sharing transportation costs.

Some places to start looking:

Ask around your apartment/condo building – including the building operators, as sometimes they already have a deal worked out with an agency or such to match people with maids

Ask people you work with

Look around for signs near your building – not near as many for maids as there are for apartment/condo but they do exist.

[Mowgli]

A good place to start looking for a maid with farang experience and references is the Bambi website,

http://www.bambi-bangkok.org/more.php?menu=12&cat=3003

[WhiteShiva]

I strongly suggest you talk to Thai people you work with, perhaps the maid(s) where you work knows someone. My experience with getting maids referred from the condominium staff where I have lived has mostly been negative. I suspect that in some cases there were kick-backs paid by the maids for such referrals, and in more than one case we ended up with a maid who did too little/too poorly, as she was already working in several other apartments.

IMHO, the best option is to get a referral from a local you can trust, e.g. a Thai friend or co-worker who would lose face if there was a problem later. In that way, candidates have already been "screened" by the time you meet them.....

Trond

Edited June 30, 2005 by WhiteShiva

[haha]

Can I employ a day time maid to do my laundry, cleaning and washing in Greater Bangkok and where and how to find one?

What is the salary going to be? Are there maid agencies online?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what you pay is up to you. it's your money.

some food for thought....

according to recent bangkok post (thai newspaper), doctors working in public hospitals get paid 8k baht a month.

most thai teachers get paid around 5k to 7k a month. of course, there are exceptions to this rule. I know one thai person who has a Phd who gets paid about 50k baht a month at this one university.

in an issue of the bangkok post last year, only 20% of the people in thailand have a high school education or above. the average salary of those in the 80% is from 3k to 6k a month. and this is for working 6 days a week. in some places, I have heard thais telling me they work about 12 hours a day.

according to the bangkok post, the average daily salary of a thai person working in bangkok is 189 baht.

the bangkok post talks about these things often. whether they are true or not, I don't know. but then, it's one of the most read newspapers here. there must be some truth to the information, right?

on a personal note, I had a friend who built a 3 story house in pattaya. he told me his thai wife hired a crew of construction guys to build the house for them. the agreed salary was 172 baht per person per day. and this is for hard labor.

I heard that the people who work at the fast food places in bangkok get paid about 23-26 baht an hour. some guy who owns one of the subway restaurants here in bangkok posted on TV that he pays his workers 25 baht an hour.

I know this one rich thai guy who employs 2 live-in maids and a chauffeur. he pays the 2 maids each 3k baht a month plus room and board. he pays his chauffeur 7k baht a month. if I recall right, he mentioned that he gives them a yearly bonus. but I don't recall how much.

I had this one friend who had a 3 bedroom apartment on sukhumvit. he didn't know what to pay a day-time maid. so he just told her he would pay her 200 baht each time she came to do the laundry, and clean up the premises. they agreed for her to come every 3 days. she came in each time for about 2 to 3 hours max.

personally, a few years ago, I went around looking for a day-time maid, and was quoted by several maids that they would be a part-time maid for 1500 baht a month.

hey! if this information is somewhat illuminating. get this. in the philippines, many people work for a dollar a day. which is about 40 baht in thai currency.

I agree with another poster, online maid agencies will charge you at a premium. do what he says, find someone who has a maid to help you out.

as a foreigner, you are at a disadvantage because you don't know the system. my guess is you will have to pay what the chinese call a "learner's fee" in the beginning before you can reap the going rate.

live and learn.

[armortec]

Thank you for the illuminating write up. I appreciate your analysis and detailing the wide spectrum of workers' salaries in thailand. My apartment management wanted 1500 baht per month, thrice weekly on a 40 sq meter bare minimum studio apt, just to do cleaning and change bed sheets. Considering no laundry and cooking. babysitting, car washing and gardening, it is expensive.

Can I employ a day time maid to do my laundry, cleaning and washing in Greater Bangkok and where and how to find one?

What is the salary going to be? Are there maid agencies online?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what you pay is up to you. it's your money.

some food for thought....

according to recent bangkok post (thai newspaper), doctors working in public hospitals get paid 8k baht a month.

most thai teachers get paid around 5k to 7k a month. of course, there are exceptions to this rule. I know one thai person who has a Phd who gets paid about 50k baht a month at this one university.

in an issue of the bangkok post last year, only 20% of the people in thailand have a high school education or above. the average salary of those in the 80% is from 3k to 6k a month. and this is for working 6 days a week. in some places, I have heard thais telling me they work about 12 hours a day.

according to the bangkok post, the average daily salary of a thai person working in bangkok is 189 baht.

the bangkok post talks about these things often. whether they are true or not, I don't know. but then, it's one of the most read newspapers here. there must be some truth to the information, right?

on a personal note, I had a friend who built a 3 story house in pattaya. he told me his thai wife hired a crew of construction guys to build the house for them. the agreed salary was 172 baht per person per day. and this is for hard labor.

I heard that the people who work at the fast food places in bangkok get paid about 23-26 baht an hour. some guy who owns one of the subway restaurants here in bangkok posted on TV that he pays his workers 25 baht an hour.

I know this one rich thai guy who employs 2 live-in maids and a chauffeur. he pays the 2 maids each 3k baht a month plus room and board. he pays his chauffeur 7k baht a month. if I recall right, he mentioned that he gives them a yearly bonus. but I don't recall how much.

I had this one friend who had a 3 bedroom apartment on sukhumvit. he didn't know what to pay a day-time maid. so he just told her he would pay her 200 baht each time she came to do the laundry, and clean up the premises. they agreed for her to come every 3 days. she came in each time for about 2 to 3 hours max.

personally, a few years ago, I went around looking for a day-time maid, and was quoted by several maids that they would be a part-time maid for 1500 baht a month.

hey! if this information is somewhat illuminating. get this. in the philippines, many people work for a dollar a day. which is about 40 baht in thai currency.

I agree with another poster, online maid agencies will charge you at a premium. do what he says, find someone who has a maid to help you out.

as a foreigner, you are at a disadvantage because you don't know the system. my guess is you will have to pay what the chinese call a "learner's fee" in the beginning before you can reap the going rate.

live and learn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>