Every month, on average, a Singapore maid will get:


- Basic salary: SGD400-500/month; (Now the bar may be raised again soon.)

- Free decent accommodation: SGD700/month (one HDB room rental market rate)

- Free Food: SGD300.00/months

- Free toilette supplies, free utilities: SGD100/month

- Free medical checkup regularly, free doctor seeing/medicine, free insurance: SGD50/month?

- Salary increment every one or two years guaranteed; (in recent few years, the salary hike was unheard of before.)

- Bonus at end of service contract at most cases;

- Free return tickets and paid home leave at least every two years;

- Not to mention the free gifts, birthday/new year hong bao, family trips/outings we brought our maid along...

- the list goes on ... (additions are welcome)

Who says maid is earning \"tiny teeny peanuts\" here in Signapore?? Please do the calculation above again! Look at the PACKAGE as a whole!! Does our new poly grads boys get all of the above? Do our poor old aunties/uncles working at food courts have these?? are all your own people well taken care of? Who will pity those FTWM or FTHM who work around the clock with no helping hands, Monday to Sunday without enough rest themselves??? MINISTRY OF MAID????!!!!

Maids are overworked, ha! All maids? Are you sure? Everyday when I came home from work late at night with no OT pay, my maid (Thank God, that's my ex-maid) greeted me wearing facial mask she made for herself and looked far more energetic than me. (She took afternoon naps after kids goes to school in the afternoon.) Example, when mopping floors, she was taking her own sweet time and singing while mopping. Excuse me, can I sing while I am working in the office please? The tensity and flexibility of being a homemaker, got it?

So, who is toiling here??? What about our human right as a worker? We make sure my maid gets enough rest (and most of them did), bonus, salary increment.... and who is there to care about our welfare?

Someone argues our boss never gives a dxxx of what we do over after work. Hellooooooo~~~~ If I live in with my boss's family, she/he will surely start to care. Please understand that for live-in maids and bosses, the employment relationship is so special where employers shoulder huge responsibility (Security bond, repatriation cost....) which does not exist else where.... please do not do the apple-and-pear comparison any more. Policy of uniformity is so unjustified here. Please note my boss is not \"held ransom\" for my wrong doings outside office hours, right?

I am not against letting maid having enough rest at all, don't get me wrong. But your Noble Highness'es, please do a better homework and try come out better policy package which is more sensible and well-balanced.

Please do NOT pass all the potential problems to us and force it down our throats, while you successfully saved your \"face\" (congratulations!) and happily collecting levies and doing almost nothing to help us!

A big thank you indeed! :gloomy:

MOM, please leave this to the market and have faith in your citizen that most of us are reasonable and fair employers.


Please take care of those foreign construction workers who work under the scorching sun, long hour, earning peanuts yet need to fork out money for their own food, even accommodation first…they are less fortunate than most of the maids…

Please take care of our own poor old antie and uncles who still have to help out in food courts clearing dishes… FIRST.

Please spare a thought for your hard-working citizens who struggle to strike a balance between work and family life in this fast-paced pressure cooker island…

Please re-look your list of priority. Please…

My maid current salary with me is S$340 with no off day (we compensated her another $20 for no-off days as stated in contract). I am re-contracting her for another 2 years and give her two choice 1) up from $340 to $380 with $200 renewal bonus; 2) up from $340 to $390 without bonus. And she chose Option No.2. No off day remains, with her agreement of course.


She also knows if she changes employer, she probably gets higher pay. But she confessed to me she doesn't want to, coz the difference will mean to \"fork out more agency fee, wasting time waiting to transfer = wasting money, heavier house chores (coz her job now is very light with a small and simple family like us), and also no guarantee of landing a nice employer\" blah blah blah. She is the one telling me this. All is figured out by herself without me brain washing her. Lucky me.

But, I told her this is my offer to her. In any case, she is not happy with this arrangement, anytime she can ask for the change of employment (no need to wait till contract ends) and we won't hold her back if she doesn't feel happy working with us.

And for your info, most of my friends who are renewing their maid's contract, as of my knowledge, are offering no exceeding S$400/month after the increment. And quite some agencies as I heard, still quoting salaries of new maid starting pay from S$380; or even as low as S$360.

So don't panic. $450 is definitely not the norm.

more update from DD:


tour around school? \"yes, library, computer lab, fishing pond (is there one???) \"
Watch TV? \"yes\";
orange juice? \"yes, not a tiny drop left\";
math test? \"no\";
words on paper? \"yes\";
words written by teacher? \"no\".;
Chinese story and Q&A? yes;
What's the story about? \"about a boy got up late and mummy wanted to bring him to antie's place and have cake.\"
all ticks? \"not sure\"; :idea:
no tick? \"not sure\". :idea:

I insisted her giving me one example of the words that she knows how to pronounce but doesn't know its meaning... After blinking her eyes for more than 1 min, she quoted \"liftless\", then she said actually now she knows what it means. I asked her what it means. She said \"no lift 没有电梯\". :nosebleed:

But I think \"liftless\" is a difficult word for P1-to-be if DD didn't bluff me.

janice_0950:

In fact, i have no idea:( Sorry to said it.
I am so stressed in this subject ^^Yun Yu^^ :stupid:
what i knew every week (once a week) will have this as followin:)
Chinese Spelling in 10 question in 词语考查 and another named in 生字关 ^^one alt. week^^

English, spelling are so straight forward with 30 question (Spelling). either with a sentence or a word.

^^ Cya ^^

wow, you are very informed. Thanks for sharing.

No need to be stressed lah. I was quite encouraged the other day when the principal said by P2, ALL students will be able to master 2000 Chinese words after adopting this Yun Yu method!!!! wow! So think about it, we only need to bite the bullet together with kids for the first 2 years before we see the light at the end of the tunnel!! Actually, not that bad.. IMHO

joy2u:

hi gajidouma, did you DD test on Math?

Thanks

ehm? Was math also tested?? How come DD never mentioned? :idea:

Anyway, not as I know. I will check with her tonight if I remember.

1G2B, your dd is really good at \"reporting\". Mine always only gave me two words \"ok lah\" or \"not sure\" for most of the questions I asked. :stupid:

Following \"clues\" in your post, so I went \"dig dig dig\" last night, finally found out from DD that she claimed to know most of the Chinese & English words, but added that some words she knows how to read, but doesn't know what they means. I asked her how many of them, she held out one hand in front of me..... so that's all I know.

dark chocolate:

Hmm, nonKiasu. Well said about working only during office hours, I am also one of those who works late in office, then cheong to fetch DS from CC (thats why I chose one which closes at 8.30pm). :oops: Fortunately, CC provides dinner so I don't have to worry about him going hungry while waiting for me.


But next year onwards, I must leave on time to fetch him. SC closes around 9pm but he will be hungry if I am late, so will have to leave to fetch him + dinner and probably continue my work after homework, revision and he goes to bed.

Am planning to order tingkat to save me time from buying dinner. I hope I can still put DS to bed by 10pm so will have to make sure he gets homework and revision done by then. Then, continue with chores and office work if need be.

Agree, my choice is not a good one, have to admit. Lots of struggle in making that decision. Heard both good and bad stories, decided to give it a try to get some first hand experience. If maid doesn't work out, I will then switch to SC...

Looking forward to the orientation in the afternoon today. I found myself more nervous and stressed than DD these days. Lots of changes need to adapt.. haha

dark chocolate:

I wouldn't think its a \"crazy\" idea because a helper is useful particularly to FTWM like us who have to struggle between work and chores and kid's homework. Just that whether you are comfortable to leave the helper with your child alone at home during the day? And, what is your main objective in having a helper? To take care of your child or to do chores?

Factors you may need to consider will be whether the maid is totally new or well recommended by someone whom you know you can trust her? We have read all kinds of horror stories about helpers, of course there are good ones as well (if you are lucky!).

IMHO, if there is only one child to take care of + household chores, the helper will likely to be quite free. Hence, not much mileage in getting one? Other considerations will be if the child can learn to be independant with a helper at home, can the helper control/discipline the child (most friends I know who have helpers, the child \"climbs over the helper's head\") correctly in your absence? Of course, pros will be home cooked meals and free from household chores after work.

These are some of the reasons why I personally will not consider a helper unless I have more kids or am sure the helper can be trusted. Part time helper can be considered if doing household chores is a problem and home cooked meals can be made up by cooking simpler food or at least home cooked soup with packed dinner on weekdays and better home cooked meals on weekends and holidays?

Hope I am not too lengthy. Hee!

Thank you so much dark chocolate. You won't believe that I had problem falling asleep these days because of this...

In the end, I have decided to give it a try by installing CCTV at home, coz we really need a long term solution as both my hubbie and I worked late quite often. SC won't solve our problem as most of them closes no later than 7pm. And I really do not want to do any house chore when back home from work at night. Actually, many people warn me that I may have to sit down with kid going through homework, at least at the beginning of their primary year.

Again thank you very much for your sharing. Really appreciate it. I am going down to Hougang Green over weekend. Wish me luck.

I actually should not vent out my anxiety here in this thread. Off topic liao. :oops:

lots of maid agencies with \"Express\" if you search http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/services-forms/Employment%20Agencies/Expanded%20FDW-placing%20EA%20Directory.pdf: not sure which one to recommend.


:?: Has anyone here left their P1 kid with new maid alone at home, say half a day for the school is not single session? care to share some experience and give some advise?

Thank you very much in advance.

wch:

Need advise, Can start to apply for PV if my boy is borned in 2007? I stay 1-2KM, what is my chances? 2B or 2C

Better call school up and ask. See if school allows. Normally 2 years before admission year.

Chance very high, almost guaranteed, under 2B, if I am not wrong.