Comments | ladyoracle: food for thought

ladyoracle

food for thought

Jan 20, 2009 11:31

A good friend of mine used to joke that "only boring women keep clean houses," and being anything but boring myself, I have always vowed to pay someone to do my cleaning if I could ever afford to do so. But I got a rude awakening when I triumphantly posted in my Livejournal that I'm paying my new maid 500 ringgit a month for eight hours a week of ( Read more... )

Comments 8

ukulelegrrl January 20 2009, 05:23:18 UTC

im not jealous nor upset with u for paying her that amt.... i just did the math bc i was curious... but that is what she would be paid elsewhere... it was the same awaking we had in mexico... our night time staff person at the condo was paid 20 bucks for 8 hours of work... it is just the injustice in these countries...

ladyoracle January 20 2009, 08:59:10 UTC

I didn't think you were having an attitude at all, and neither was my other LJ friend, but your comments were good because they helped me explore the nuances of the arrangement. I was using hyperoble when I said you called me a sweat shol slave driver. Nobody said that, but I felt it implied because of the sensitivity I have toward worker's rights and immigrant issues at home.

ladyoracle January 20 2009, 09:00:59 UTC

And my goodness, I know you weren't jealous. I would take the safety I felt at home to walk down the street alone over having a maid any day of the week, even cleaning day.

scorpiojerm January 20 2009, 10:19:29 UTC

when I saw ur post I was gonna say you're paying your maid a lot by the going rate.

:-)

My maid started at $200; 4 hours x once a week x 4 times a month. She's been with me a few years so over the years I've increased her pay to RM250. My friends complain I'm paying too much.

Some others are paying RM150 - RM200.

I've enquired about twice a week for frens before and sme quote between RM400 - RM450 or RM500 if she comes highly recommended.

Its the going rate in the country that's important. In Jakarta, my friend gets a live in maid at about RM800 a month I think.

ladyoracle January 20 2009, 11:34:17 UTC

Darn it!

scorpiojerm January 21 2009, 03:46:53 UTC

its not that much more :-)

more important is if she's trustworthy and good at her work. I went through quite a few maids who drove me nuts before I found my current maid

ladyoracle January 21 2009, 14:11:21 UTC

What problems did you have, and how did you know if the problem was theft?

yukimi January 21 2009, 01:41:27 UTC

I think it really depends on cost of living on whether it's actually an unfair wage.

Also, I wouldn't feel bad paying someone what they asked me to pay them.