maid's salary

[astrid]

Dear all,

what are the going rates for maids nowadays ?

Mine is working 5 days a week for 1-2 hours (160 Euros/month).
I pay her social security.

Now she says that she only wants to work only three days per week for the same salary. Is this reasonable? She is a good maid and I would like
to keep her, but still I wish to stay in line with local practice.

What is your experience with maids' salaries?

Thanks for your help!


Astrid

[blue]

Without going through an agency & without paying NI the going rate seems to be anywhere between 6 & 10 euros an hour. A lot depends on what you expect the maid to do & where you live.

[astrid]

Hi Blue,

thank you for your helpful reply.

Our house is about 800 meters from the center of Carvoeiro.
She has a bus stop nearby.

We rent out our house during the high season, but it's usually empty in the low season. Our maid comes all through the year even when our house is empty. When there are guests she makes up the beds, cleans
the bathrooms, does the laundry and takes care of the change-overs etc.

Of her 160 Euro salary, 36 Euros are for social security. So her net salary
is 124 Euros, for about 2 hours a day, 5 days a week (13 months).


Astrid

[Lesley Jean]

Our cleaning lady does all that and we pay her on an hourly rate of 7 euros.

[blue]

It's difficult as your maid works 5 days a week all through the year, what on earth does she find to do when it's winter & your place is empty? Has she given you a reason for cutting down her days? Do you really need her for 5 days a week perhaps she could do more hours on the 3 days she works for you.
It's not easy finding a really good maid so unless you can replace her for the same money I would hang on to her & try to work something out that's mutually beneficial.

I pay 8€'s an hour + fuel (as we are in the middle of nowhere).

[widge]

This is a very interesting discussion. For example how is social security calculated? We pay our maid 204 euros per month for 13 months and in addition her social security costs which are 73.32 euros per month. This suggests ss is 36% but that sounds very high to me.

[Alison]

We inherited an excellent maid when we bought our property 5 years ago. She works all the year round and either comes in 1to 2 hours a day every day or 2 to 3 hours 3 times a week depending on what we/clients want. She has to work very hard during the summer months of continuous occupancy, doing changeovers etc on her own and we also have quite a few winter clients so her only slack time tends to be in December. We pay her for 13 months at 200euros per month and pay her Caixa of 50euros/month on top of that.

[Alison]

Well that was interesting - there was me just trying to work out what eco/spider's post meant and whether I should reply in similar helpful vein - I decided to resist the temptation to reply immediately - and now someone has kindly removed it - thankyou!

[shanagarry]

It seems that €200 per month for 13 months is the going rate - that's the amount we pay.We come out for long weekends in the winter and usually give her €50 in caixa. We went from 5 to 3 days 2 years ago because paying clients felt it somewhat intrusive to have her there every day.

We are very pleased with her, having inherited her with the property 8 years ago. We know she has 5 other clients, so does very well and like the previous mail - during the winter months she has nothing to do. We know of many people who have woeful maids - so be thankful you have a good one and hold on to her.

She takes care of her own social secutity - I just wish the gardener would do the same.

[astrid]

Dear all,

Based on all your helpful information I have offered my maid 150 Euros per month (x13) plus social security 36 Euros/month for 5 days per week between 1 and two hours. Our house is completely empty at least 6 months out of 12, so she has an extremely "restful" and extended low season, compared to some other villas, but she does come around to air the house.

She has accepted and is quite content.

Concerning hourly rates for maids and cleaning women: I pay my cleaning woman in the Netherlands 10 Euros per hour and that's reasonable rate. Clearly the cost of living in the Portugal is lower than in the Netherlands, so in comparison I would consider 10 Euros/hour, or anything over, excessive for the Algarve.

[bife73]

10 euros an hour I wouldn't say is excessive.....the cost of living here isn't that low anymore! Plus if you are employing somebody part time you always pay a premium rate!
What I ask myself....is the job being done well? Would I do the work for the same fee?