Foreign maids

Blame it on the labor law in Hong Kong again, since most employers have some reasons to believe they are not falling between the limitations of the guidelines and most employees believe their employers are right. These group of devoted employees become the 24x7 pillars of the society.

Someone needs to stay at home and dust the house, take the dog for a walk, or bring the kids to school while both parent are busy at work or getting on with their lives. Foreign maids are the solution.

Foreign maids are one of the most important imports of Hong Kong from the nearby countries. Filipino maids, Indonesia maids, mainland China maids, ... for US$400 per month, you get almost unlimited supply of domestic help, right from your own kitchen. It's cheap, it's pretty, it's handy!

Geographically shifting the strategy and hire a maid to be your domestic help and look after the kids is not an ideal solution on this side of the world. Maids are not too popular in N. America because if you hire a maid, you automatically become an employer of one employee. And being an employer, you are subjected to all the labor laws and regulations.

The maid in your house should essentially be treated as another worker in a 300-man factory. There are 2 15-minute breaks for every 8-hour shift. One 45 minutes unpaid lunch break and overtime pay if the maid works more than 40 hours per week. If the regulated minimum wage in your state is $8, you need to pay over $1350 for a maid each month. Not including insurance and worker's compensation and all the other good stuff.

Even if I am a regular office worker working a 40 hour week, I still need some traveling time. If the maid starts to work from the time I step out of the door, and ends by the time I get home, I still have to pay the maid overtime for all the hours I spend on the highway. Not to imagine what kind of arrangement has to be made for the 1.5 hours of recesses during the day. (Put the baby in the freezer?)

HKers are better-off in this game so far. Most people can afford to stay out longer when they have hired a maid to look after the house and things attach to it. Maids are more flexible and work 12-hour shift (some longer) without any complaint like the rest of the local HK workforce. While in here you have 3 choices, grease your maid with all the overtime, hire additional help, or pick up the chores yourself.