SALARIES for experienced casual domestic helpers recently doubled to 20 yuan (US$3.04) per hour. Some of them could earn about 6,000 yuan a month, almost as much as a white-collar salary.
From 2000 to 2007, most casual domestic help was paid about 10 yuan per hour while those in Bao an and Longgang districts received only about 5 yuan. After 2007, wages for casual work began to trend upward, Shenzhen Evening News reported Thursday.
Since last July, wages for most casual domestic workers started to rise to about 20 yuan per hour while those in Bao an and Longgang districts rose to between 15 and 20 yuan. During the Spring Festival holidays, casual pay climbed to as high as about 30 yuan. Casual workers were now earning 18 to 20 yuan per hour, the newspaper said.
Casual employees worked eight hours a day and had four days off a month. Their monthly salaries exceeded 4,000 yuan. But most casual workers spent much more time in working.
A casual worker surnamed Luo started work as a housekeeper 10 years ago. After a few years, she started casual work. She was up every day at 6 a.m. and started work for the first family at 7 a.m., finishing her sixth client s house at 10:30 p.m.
Last year, she bought a 170-square-meter house in her hometown in Jiangxi Province for more than 200,000 yuan.
Promising salaries and flexible schedules for casual workers had prompted many full-time maids to take on casual work, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, the cost of hiring a domestic helper for Shenzhen families had risen by 15 to 20 percent because of a labor shortage before and after the Spring Festival holidays, local housekeeping service agencies said.
Many families complained that domestic help agencies did not offer training and some newcomers could not even cook.
(Jane Lai)
