We don't know how much to pay our cleaning lady. She starts this week. We have about 100 sq metres and two bathrooms. We guess it should take about two hours. Can anyone help?

i pay 1000 per month, same circumstance, she came twice a week.

Wow, JJYY1! You pay your cleaning person extremely well. Twice a week, 2 hours each time, paying 1000 kuai for a four week month comes out to around 60 kuai an hour unless my math is off. I know some Chinese teachers who only make about 10 kuai an hour. I will have to let them know that they are in the wrong field. I think 15- 20 kuai an hour is a more than fair price for cleaning.

Think you should have negotiated the payrate before you hired her. 20 rmb for light cleaning,perhaps 50 for really dirty work seems fair. Hard to imagine any teacher working for 10 kuai an hour.

full time monday-friday 9am-5pm, 6 to 6.5rmb per hour is the going rate. we paid our 1000 per month for that schedule. part time is anywhere from 8-12 rmb per hour. more than that and you're getting badly ripped off. 12 kuai is the absolute max I've ever heard anyone paying.

we pay our current baomu 700 per month, and she comes mon-wed-fri 9-5. she cleans, cooks, helps with the shopping and so on.

It seems that there is a huge amount of diverse thought on this subject.

1. How much, as a foreigner in China, would you expect to earn as a house cleaner - I'm sure that you'd feel that 60 yuan/hour quite reasonable - after all, you are, perhaps, accepting a relatively low Chinese-level income for teaching at the moment?

2. Accredited Chinese teachers do not earn 10 yuan/hour - I know many who are buying their own houses and driving expensive cars.

3. Perhaps, if you can only afford to pay $1/hour ... you don't deserve to have a house keeper/cleaner/cook/nanny/etc.

4. The Western media describes the the Chinese low wages as part of the Communist system ... I wonder.

4. It's often referred to as 'exploitation'. It reminds me of Palestinians building houses for Zionists in the occupied West Bank (My favourite subject).

Pause before replying. ;-)

Wow,

It never fails to surprise me how many ignorant Westerners there are in Kunming. Considering the vast majority of foreigners in China earn a "low Chinese-level income" I wonder if that little slight wasn't intentional? Totally unnecessary.

Barbara, I'd suggest asking around if you have any Chinese friends what the going rate is for a cleaning lady who comes once or twice a week to sweep, mop, wash clothing, etc. At most you can expect to pay them a couple hundred yuan per month, but certainly not anything even approaching 1000 RMB. It's simply way too high and unnecessary.

Like some accredited Chinese teachers who make the majority of their earnings conducting business outside of the schools they teach in, you should be making more than enough money to afford one if you really need it. The highest pay most department heads can expect to make on a monthly salary is about 7,000RMB, a low salary for a foreign teacher in China - and this is with decades of experience. If you want to argue about it I'd be happy to bring in a good friend of mine from Yunnan University to verify.

Don't worry about exploitation. Most of them are incredibly happy to be working as cleaners making more in a month than they would make in half a year in their home villages. Treat them nicely, politely, and be fair. You'll find that having a nanny or a cleaning lady coming in to be quite nice, and a bit of appreciation goes quite far in China where class consciousness is the rule of the day.

Don't worry about hourly income as this is a foreign concept to most Chinese. Agree on how many days she comes to the home to clean and settle on a monthly wage.

Seems like utilization to me.

well, putting the "exploitation" aside. one could hire a full time 24/6 live-in good house helper for 1300 a month (social security + insurance included) in guangzhou, shenzhen, a bit more in beijing. that is going rate the local chinese family would pay. as a reference, the foreign house helpers in hong kong get paid (rate regulated) 3000 month (8/5) + return airfaire + insurance. if you pay the local would pay, there is little point in slipping in the word "exploitation", i think.

make sure there is insurance otherwise it might be trouble, if.......she/ he falls.....etc

Two foreign friends (similar sized flats) both have house help. One pays ¥1,500, the other pays ¥2,000. Per month, full time.

This includes meals for the helper (who is herself preparing the meals). She cooks, cleans, and helps with the kids.

Their baomu's are pretty reliable. If price is more important you can find plenty of helpers for even less. Also if the helper lives with you then you don't need to pay so much.