Full-time maids are now almost unaffordable

Shuchita Kapur/Emirates 24/7 News
2011 Nov 30
Dubai residents are feeling the pinch when it comes to hiring full-time househelps. Majority of residents claim that the cost of recruiting domestic help continues to increase while their income has not increased proportionately in the recent past.
An irked resident said: “The maid agencies seem to be increasing their placement charges each year. The money they take from us as salary for the maid is also increasing. The sad part is that they don’t even pay the maids half of what they take from us.”
Even the embassies and consulates of different countries that are main providers of domestic help in the UAE increase the costs.
Most recently, the embassy of Nepal have made a security deposit of Dh5,000 mandatory. “I’m in the process of getting a maid from Nepal. I’ve booked her tickets and now this new rule about the security deposit has come into effect,” complained a resident living in The Springs area of Dubai.
“.. After we check your documents, we ask you to submit these documents along with refundable Dh5,000 as security deposit (for the new domestic workers only) and Dh300 as service charge (non-refundable),” read the website of the Embassy of Nepal in the UAE.
Al Ahliya agency gets maids from countries such as the Philippine and Indonesia. “We charge Dh8,150 for getting a maid from the Philippines and Dh9,250 from Indonesia. This is just to process the documents and includes one way air fare to the UAE. It excludes all kinds of visa charges, which is to be paid by the sponsor. The salary for Filipinos range from Dh1,100-Dh1,000 and Dh800-Dh700 for Indonesians,” an executive at the agency told ‘Emirates24|7’.
Another agency UIT providing Filipino maids charge Dh2,700 per month for a two-year contract. Their office charges are Dh3,000 with an additional security deposit of Dh5,000. The agency provides one-time replacement. The maid remains on the visa of the company, an executive at the agency said.
“They have changed their charges. I took a maid from them in 2007. The office commission was Dh2,000 and the monthly charges were less,” said Anita, an Indian mother, who’d hired from the same agency. Even the hourly services of the agencies seem to be getting more expensive each year. Al Deyar maid service charges Dh70 per hour for a two maid team.
Getting maids by word-of-mouth is a much better option, say residents. In this case one can save on agency commission and other charges, say families who have got their help from other sources like the classifieds.

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