How much to pay a part time cleaner in Chiang Mai

[Gassit]

Hi - I live near the centre of town in CM and have been looking for a cleaner for my apartment. The building supervisor has offered someone for B1200 -  2 days/week x 4 hours/day. Does this sound like market rate for  8 hours cleaning work per week? Or is the building super creaming something for himself? I don't want to underpay (or overpay).

Any advice appreciated.

[Airalee]

Sounds about right for part time cleaners.  My juristic manager arranged for the common area housekeepers to clean units (1br) after their scheduled work hours for ฿300.  Two of them would come in for about an hour so ฿150/hr per person.  I only used them once a month as I was already a bit of a neat freak.  I paid them directly so no skimming or scams involved.  Just a nice juristic manager looking out for the tenants and trying to help the housekeepers earn a few extra baht on the side.  This was also in Chiang Mai.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Airalee
To clarify location.

[ThaiPauly]

We pay ours 400 baht a day.

 

She is very happy with that

[pgrahmm]

Used to be 300B a day - but now 400B seems to be about right....

Your building guy is probably laughing & pocketing half....

[CharlieH]

Might be better asking the Chiang Mai forum for local knowledge.

 

MOVED

[KittenKong]

3 hours ago, Airalee said:

I paid them directly so no skimming or scams involved.  Just a nice juristic manager looking out for the tenants and trying to help the housekeepers earn a few extra baht on the side.

 

Maybe, maybe not. I suspect that the manager is probably taking commission or some favour in kind from the ladies for allowing them to do the job. That's what would happen in my building anyway.

 

There's always an angle here.

[Jumbo chilli]

3 - 400 baht a day(9 AM - 3-4 PM). That't what I and my neighbors pay, seems going rate around here.

[pgrahmm]

1 hour ago, pgrahmm said:

Used to be 300B a day - but now 400B seems to be about right....

Your building guy is probably laughing & pocketing half....

 

That's in CM....

[amexpat]

Four hours per day twice a week to clean an apartment?  Maybe if you are raising animals in there. 

[worgeordie]

Think you would be best taking the building managers offer,

but first try and negotiate a better price,you will have great difficulty

finding a cleaning lady on your own.

regards worgeordie

Edited August 6, 2016 by worgeordie
mistake

[NancyL]

Talk with neighbors with similar-sized units.  Do they really need to have some in twice a week for four hours?  If so, then the hourly rate is OK.

 

I guess you maybe could keep somebody busy in a condo for that may hours if you never washed a dish and expect them to come in and wash a sink-full of dirty pots, pans, dishes, glasses and cutlery twice a week.  I guess you could keep someone busy for eight hours a week if you expect them to do laundry and ironing, also.  I guess you could keep someone busy if there is pet care, like shampooing the dog.  

 

Maybe this is a big condo with three bathrooms and a family of five living in the unit.  Don't know.  If so, then that much time is needed.  If it's just one or two people, then I can't see how four hours twice a week would be needed if the condo is 100 sq. meters or less.

 

 

[jonwilly]

Two of the ladies who work as maids in my condo come and do my room once a week.

One sweeps mops and dusts.

Second lady cleans the hong nam, takes them about 15-20 mins, B100 each and I am satisfied with their service.

The older, senior girl also runs any errands quite happy to help out and I do over pay her to keep her sweet.

A third lady who lives in my condo does tailoring jobs. Shirts and even makes underwear as I am on the large size, B450 for a well made shirt or pullover and I think B90 each for last batch of skiddies with me finding the material.

When I lived in Issan the ladies by the road with sewing machines would not touch male clothing, wife had to sort out that problem.

 

john

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Two of them can get a 70 sm apartment ready to rent in 2 hours...easily.  A routine cleaning 30 minutes.  I'd pay 100 for 90 minutes, once per week, for one of them, and not let them near my laundry.

 

Dairy Queen pays 42-55 per hour, and they usually speak some English and are very presentable, and they take courses in food handling.  The cleaners at the hospitals make about the same...might even be a good place to recruit...7-11 in front of Maharaj at about 16:00....

Edited August 6, 2016 by KhonKaenKowboy

[cyberfarang]

I have discovered over the years that paying for lobour at what I have been told are the standard rates fails to hold the workers enthusiasm for the job, like house repairs, gardening, electrical jobs or anything when needs be. So I usually pay over double the going rates, which is still peanuts to me.

 

We have half a rai of garden here and since suffering a leg problem a few months ago have not been able to cut down the grass and weeds myself. We found a local man willing to do the job using my petrol grass cutter that takes about an hour and a half, sometimes much less is not during the rainy season when the weeds stop growing too high. I want the job done once every 2 months. Going rate 300 baht around here, but I pay the guy 700 baht that is still peanuts for once in 2 months. Now every time there is an an emergency or I want a job done, one phone call and they are here in minutes, always reliable and never let me down.

 

Money talks and even paying over the odds will not break the bank, for those that want jobs done well and to ensure the workers don`t get bored and keep coming back.

Edited August 6, 2016 by cyberfarang

[evenstevens]

out in Beverly Hills Maerim, my old shelia pays 300 baht and not a baht more, 8am to 5pm, once every  4 to 5 days , hour  off for lunch, where my old shelia

supplies the tucker, over the yrs lost count how many we have had, but always manage to find another one, perhaps 2/3 months is the norm they last

the present one ,  has been here a month , and is one of the better ones, would my old shelia  pay extra for her above average work etc etc , not on your nelly !!!

300 baht is the going rate according to her, pay anymore ,or feel sorry for  them, gets u nowhere ,and over the yrs from our experiences , my old shelia is on the money

its  a  Canned Heat  good morning to all

 

 

[khwaibah]

Suck in your gut buttercups.

 

New minimum wages from 340-550 baht per day to become effective August 10

 

 

[oxo1947]

Remember back in the day when your TV wouldn't work so you'd bang it a few times?

.
I tried that with my dishwasher and she ended up pregnant....................

 

[NancyL]

1 hour ago, evenstevens said:

out in Beverly Hills Maerim, my old shelia pays 300 baht and not a baht more, 8am to 5pm, once every  4 to 5 days , hour  off for lunch, where my old shelia

supplies the tucker, over the yrs lost count how many we have had, but always manage to find another one, perhaps 2/3 months is the norm they last

the present one ,  has been here a month , and is one of the better ones, would my old shelia  pay extra for her above average work etc etc , not on your nelly !!!

300 baht is the going rate according to her, pay anymore ,or feel sorry for  them, gets u nowhere ,and over the yrs from our experiences , my old shelia is on the money

its  a  Canned Heat  good morning to all

 

 

Your "old shelia" must like having to recruit and train a new maid four to six times a year.  

 

Personally, I consider that extremely short-sighted (and mean) and perhaps an indication that she doesn't have enough to do with her time and should simply do the cleaning and household tasks herself.

 

Back when Hubby and I had a greenhouse/nursery business we'd start out the new hires at the "standard" wage for other similar operations in our area and tell them if they worked out we'd bump up their salary after one month.  (It was surprising how many didn't last the first month.) And we continued to give them regular pay increases if they did well and bonuses if we had an especially good month.  After all, they could see when we had a good month, we thought they should be rewarded for busting their butts during those months, too. 

 

After about three or four years of being in business we had a loyal staff that stayed with us for years, coming back winter after winter to work with us again each spring.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

employer of migrant workers.....lol.

[anotheruser]

3 hours ago, khwaibah said:

Suck in your gut buttercups.

 

New minimum wages from 340-550 baht per day to become effective August 10

 

 

 

Pointless post, that is the wage per day. The posters here are talking about rates of 300 and more for a few hours. 

[Dante99]

8 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

 

Pointless post, that is the wage per day. The posters here are talking about rates of 300 and more for a few hours. 

Wrong, Not ES the horse who posted just prior to the one you call pointless, he was talking about full days of work, 8-5.  It is called critical reading and you could use the refresher course.

[hml367]

From the link Kwaibah gave:

 

But she said workers must have to  pass the national labour skill standard test of their jobs to get the new wage rates.

 

It seems the wages referred to are for "skilled labor".  Would house cleaning come under that?

[khwaibah]

6 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Wrong, Not ES the horse who posted just prior to the one you call pointless, he was talking about full days of work, 8-5.  It is called critical reading and you could use the refresher course.

 

 

6 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Wrong, Not ES the horse who posted just prior to the one you call pointless, he was talking about full days of work, 8-5.  It is called critical reading and you could use the refresher course.

 

 

+1

 

 

[NancyL]

4 hours ago, KhonKaenKowboy said:

employer of migrant workers.....lol.

 

Not migrant workers, but rather seasonal workers.  In the end, we had a workforce of women in their 40s - 60s, some of whom went to Florida for the winter with their retired husbands.  We invested in equipment and devised work strategies so that no one had to lift anything that weighed more than 40 pounds (except Hubby -- he did the heavy lifting).

 

They were much better workers than the younger people we hired and knew more about plants and gardening, too.

[jonwilly]

Two of the restaurateurs I know constantly complains of staff mainly young girls leaving after a short period of employment.

Older women with children usually become more permanent employees.

 

john

[1FinickyOne]

That equates to 1200 baht for a days work... sounds like a lot... 

[evenstevens]

23 hours ago, NancyL said:

Your "old shelia" must like having to recruit and train a new maid four to six times a year.

 

Personally, I consider that extremely short-sighted (and mean) and perhaps an indication that she doesn't have enough to do with her time and should simply do the cleaning and household tasks herself.

 

 

 

 the usual  stab in the dark post,  by you ,!!!!come out of Gods  Waiting  Room,  and get on board with reality, sadly you are in another orbit with the O/P request

 

and ridiculing my Old  Shelia, only confirms your mentality  status is below the norm ,of the dinky di farung  expat in c/mai

 

our property in Beverly Hills Maerim, is 2...1/2...rai, or 4000 sq metres ,and has approx 380 sq metres of  living space etc etc to take of, not to mention around 30 trees to boot

 

therefore my Old Shelia puts in a good shift each day doing the necessary jobs in maintaining our residence , (our part time cleaner really just takes up a little  slack)

 

only a couple days back she had the monkey wrench out of her tool box, doing some plumbing work, a week or so ago she noticed a small leak in our water system set up

 

a pump had packed  it in, within the next  few hrs that was replaced by her with the help of our water man

so my Old Shelia does, nt sit around twiddling her thumbs,as you rudely imply

 

E/S thinks the going rates outside the city limits are far cheaper, for unskilled labour, such as cleaners etc etc J.M.O

around ten yrs ago during our build E/S hired lady unskilled lady  workers for 150 baht a day (8hrs)

until yingluk came along, we engaged our lady cleaners at 200 baht a day , then with yingluks blessing it automatically rose to 300 baht a day

which has held(with us )to the present day

 

just to close with,two months back, our small teak sala  and bar ,both roofs had been eaten away by hungry termites, we engaged our local bldr to fully replaced the roofs with conwood  , 16 days in total labour was necessary to carry out the job to perfection,which involved some tricky carpentry i might add

 

price was 8000, baht or 500 baht a day broken down, and that was for totally highly  skilled labour,

 

do hope my comparsions will  assist  the O/P

 

its  a Black Sabbath lovely morning to all

 

 

Edited August 8, 2016 by evenstevens

[Trujillo]

Interesting to see the tightwads here proclaiming the (artificially determined) minimum daily wage of 300 baht as a standard from which no one should deviate. 

These can't be the same folks that argue that double pricing for national parks and tourist sites is fair, can they be? 

 

The real question here is where to find people willing to come and clean in the first place; and finding people who actually will do the work properly.

 

Does paying 400 baht for a job that "should be" 300 baht make the worker happier? Do a better job? Help keep her around longer? 

If you think not, don't pay more than the sticker price. That US$2.85 is important to your retirement fund; don't just spend it willy-nilly!