helper/ Nanny Salary and are you satisfied with yours?

I think you have some misconceptions about helpers. These misconceptions are quite common if you have not lived in the area before. In most cases, a helper is less money, less hassle and less worry than a part time. She is a woman you can delegate domestic work to in a very flexible manner. Much easier than having a part time.


I cannot recommend it strongly enough: get a helper instead of mucking about with part time. A good one will improve your quality of life very significantly. Even a mediocre one will help out greatly.


To answer your question: We could not be more satisfied with our helper. She is a fantastic lady who cooks amazing meals for us, takes great care of our kids and generally lights up the house with her sunny disposition. Life with her is so much better than without.



"As I do not speak Chinese, helper should be bilingual."


Why do you need a helper who speaks Chinese? The vast majority speak quite passable English.


Just as an aside, HKers refer to the local language as "Cantonese", not Chinese. This differentiates it from "Mandarin", which is spoken on the mainland.


"(3~4 hours/day, 3 days a week would be 3.5~4K per months for part time worker)."


Well, that's already hitting the minimum wage for a live-in, and with a live-in you can get many more hours.


"My partner suggested to hire fulltime phillipino, but I am not quite comfortable to have FT nanny as I want to do most of housework myself."


If you don't want her to do certain things, just let her know.


"In public toilet, I saw cleaning lady cleaning toilet seat with the mop she cleaned floor!!!!!


Anyway, thats why I refused to let strangers clean my house.....though domestic helper is not expensive in HK."


That sort of thing is easily avoidable with a helper, and much harder with a part time cleaner. With the helper you have a whole different relationship.


"As I read in articles, hiring PT foreign nanny/ helper is not legal. (As long as she has HK permanent residency or HKer its ok)."


Correct. A helper must be live-in and full-time unless she has residency or citizenship. The latter kind is much more money.


"As I am a small business owner traveling a lot, not able to put my kid into kindergarten full time.

Therefore trying to find house keeper/ nanny, but as I do not trust them enough to hire full time, I am trying to find PT helper."


Frankly, I would trust a full-time live-in far more easily than a part-time live-out.


Also, nothing stops you from letting the helper take your child to and from kindy. I'd say more than half of the kids at my daughters' kindy are dropped off and picked up by helpers.

I would advise you to find a full time live in helper, there are lots of good experienced ones always looking for jobs, especially if you run a business, look after a child, and want to travel, plus in Hong Kong if you have a helper you will be able to go out and socialise if you have someone you can trust looking after your house and child. Most of these helpers are bi-lingual, and some are highly qualified to be working as helpers (eg teachers, graduates), but they cannot get jobs in their home countries. If you find a really good one they are a treasure!, and they need respect and looking after well.This particular section of asiaexpat designated for helpers, contains a lot of complaints, these are tiniest of minority, of the thousands of good helpers, so don't think helpers are a problem.

"This particular section of asiaexpat designated for helpers, contains a lot of complaints, these are tiniest of minority, of the thousands of good helpers, so don't think helpers are a problem"


Quite true. There are more than 150000 helpers in HK, and only a tiny minority are cause for serious complaint.

Part time...you are in for a big big headache. Half of the time they will not understand what exactly you wanted or not report on time. Since you travel a lot, a FT would be much much conveniant. Philipino helpers are excellent in cleaning and many of them are trained cleaners. My helper probably has a phd in house cleaning :) She does exactly what is wanted. With you having kids, I would trust them with a FT helper more than a PT. Infact I won't trust PT at all since they don't have a legal contract binding to any thing. An yes people are correct here, most of the helpers are excellent, only a minority of people create problems.

Agree with the others although i understand why you don't want a live in helper it sounds like it would be best for your situation. Bare in mind also that out of the complaints problems many are caused my employers too not just the helper so if your a good employer it cuts the risk even further.

Re. the cleaning cloths -


I am so sensitive about this. I can still remember a former helper of mine who cleaned my fridge out with the same cloth she had just used to clean our toilets. I was 9 months pregnant and already had a 18 month old and I was working so I couldn't replace her immediately - after I saw what she'd done I just sat on my sofa and sobbed and sobbed.


But anyway, I now use the following system - basically all the cleaning cloths are colour coded in our house now. Blue ones for mopping the floor, pink ones for the bathroom + toilet (with a rule that she must clean the sink / bath tub and surfaces first, toilet always last, and one cloth per bathroom), white ones for dusting / kitchen incl. fridge. Each set of cloths are stored in a small plastic basket (matching colour) and on the front of each basket I have taped a paper saying what kind of stuff this colour cloth can clean.


This system is so simple, the helper can remember it very easily and no mix ups. In addition I used the following measures - when she first started, I demonstrated all the housework tasks once & she observed/took notes. While I was demonstrating, I explained in detail about germs and WHY it is not OK to clean the loo first and then use the same cloth to wipe over the sinks. Then the second time she did the work and I watched and corrected her where necessary. Lastly, I will observe her cleaning the bathroom about 1-2 times per year just to check she is using the right colour cloths and is cleaning the toilet last.


Another thing to watch for is what happens to the cloths after they've been used (you don't want them washed in with your tea towels for example). What I do is - all used & wet cloths must be hung up to dry first (if they're just slung in the laundry bin the cloths and all other items will go mouldy). We use wire hangers for dirty cloths, and plastic hangers to hang up freshly washed cloths / other clothes. Used & dry cleaning cloths are transferred to a plastic bag and when the bag is full I put them on a boil wash in the washing machine, cleaning cloths only and no other washing in at the same time, even if the machine is not completely full. Washed & wet cloths are then hung up to dry before being put back in their colour coded baskets. In this way, there is no confusion about whether a particular cloth is used or clean, or what it is for. I do the boil wash once a week on my helper's day off (Sunday) so she always knows when she's going to get clean cloths (I originally planned to do the boil wash 3x per month, but when my DH did not know exactly when she was going to get clean cloths I observed she started reusing the dirty ones, even though we had loads of clean ones left ... I think she was just worried ... but anyway I now have a regular boil wash day and she no longer reuses dirty cloths).


Hope this helps!

"But anyway, I now use the following system - basically all the cleaning cloths are colour coded in our house now. Blue ones for mopping the floor, pink ones for the bathroom + toilet (with a rule that she must clean the sink / bath tub and surfaces first, toilet always last, and one cloth per bathroom), white ones for dusting / kitchen incl. fridge. Each set of cloths are stored in a small plastic basket (matching colour) and on the front of each basket I have taped a paper saying what kind of stuff this colour cloth can clean."


This sort of idea is great. No room for error. With a full time, easy to implement. With a part time, she might not remember, or care.



"This system is so simple, the helper can remember it very easily and no mix ups. In addition I used the following measures - when she first started, I demonstrated all the housework tasks once & she observed/took notes. While I was demonstrating, I explained in detail about germs and WHY it is not OK to clean the loo first and then use the same cloth to wipe over the sinks. Then the second time she did the work and I watched and corrected her where necessary. Lastly, I will observe her cleaning the bathroom about 1-2 times per year just to check she is using the right colour cloths and is cleaning the toilet last."


I like your method. Good communication is key. Lots of employers don't communicate what they want from their helpers, and then complain that the helper is not doing the job right.


"Another thing to watch for is what happens to the cloths after they've been used (you don't want them washed in with your tea towels for example)."


A bit extreme I think. In a modern washing machine you can wash poo stained baby clothes with tea towels and everything else. It will all be perfectly safe to use afterward. On "warm" of course.



"I am so sensitive about this. I can still remember a former helper of mine who cleaned my fridge out with the same cloth she had just used to clean our toilets. I was 9 months pregnant and already had a 18 month old and I was working so I couldn't replace her immediately - after I saw what she'd done I just sat on my sofa and sobbed and sobbed."


Sounds a bit extreme to want to replace a helper because she used the wrong cloth. Telling her what she did wrong and asking her to correct it is one thing, but letting her go? If she keeps repeating the error after you have told her is of course another matter.

Another way to sanitise cleaning cloths: dry them in the tumble dryer on "hot".

Actually, I would submit that if a helper doesn't know without being told not to use the toilet cloth to clean the fridge she must be just hopeless! I know all helpers need training but for me there has to be a basic starting point, a minimum level of common sense and intelligence.


Apart from that, unfortunately that particular helper was totally unsuitable in every respect and I definitely wanted to replace her way before that incident! What happened (to cut a long story short!) was that the agency I had used lied to me saying that this particular woman had 2 yrs in Singapore, refs, good English etc but when the DH arrived I realised it was all untrue, but in my situation at the time there wasn't much I could do about it ...


For the washing of cloths, my concern is all those heavy duty chemicals which are in many cleaning products, and which I don't want on my tea towels or clothes. We actually are trying to use natural cleaning stuff as much as possible but some chemicals cannot be avoided. That's why I wash the cloths separately and on boil wash. But for the rest I agree with you, I do put socks and stuff in with tea towels and face cloths.

"Actually, I would submit that if a helper doesn't know without being told not to use the toilet cloth to clean the fridge she must be just hopeless! I know all helpers need training but for me there has to be a basic starting point, a minimum level of common sense and intelligence. "


I don't agree. Many of these women come from very poor backgrounds, and have limited education. Don't take for granted that they know the same things as people from industrialized nations. Basic sanitation is not as well known around the world as one would like to think.



"For the washing of cloths, my concern is all those heavy duty chemicals which are in many cleaning products, and which I don't want on my tea towels or clothes."


You don't need heavy duty chemicals to wash the cleaning cloths (or the baby clothes with poop). Normal detergent is quite enough. The heat of the water will kill any pathogens.

Yes, many DH come from poor backgrounds and have not had the benefit of a good education, but I would argue that most posters here are unlikely to choose such a person for their own helper. For me, and I imagine most people using this website, I want to choose a helper who is reasonably intelligent, at least high school if not university educated, good spoken English & comprehension + common sense. So if a new helper comes in and cleans the fridge with the same cloth as she's just used on the loo, that's like a very obvious signal to me that she's just not suitable. I would submit that those helpers who are very uneducated and very poor are usually extremely difficult to train to a high enough standard to satisfy middle class people in Hong Kong, and even with those few individuals for whom it is possible it would be too time consuming, which is why I would never choose that type of applicant to work in my home.


That said, don't get me wrong, of course I feel for those women, coming from a poor background with little education, even if they make it to Hong Kong they are most likely to end up in the less attractive DH positions here. But my own reality is that I cannot offer a DH job to such a person at this time. What I can do is make donations to organisations who help the poor in Asia and support their education, and I do regularly donate.


On the topic of washing the cleaning cloths, yes I do use regular detergent which I agree is sufficient. What I am worried about is the chemicals the cloths have been in contact with before they are washed. For example, that kitchen cleaner (the one used to get rid of grease) is noxious stuff (have you ever smelled it?!), and even Cif, plus many others. Of course these subtances get on the cloth during cleaning, but now evidence is coming out that even inhaling the 'fumes' of these cleaning products whilst using them is bad for health, so I certainly want to be careful about how I wash the cloths. Some green organisations claim there is evidence that many cleaning chemicals contain carcinogens (see the book entitled "Going Green in Hong Kong"). Of course, nowadays there are claims that almost everything contains carcinogens or causes cancer, but for me boil washing the cleaning cloths is an easy thing to do, so why not be on the safe side? At least that is my reasoning!

"Of course, nowadays there are claims that almost everything contains carcinogens or causes cancer, but for me boil washing the cleaning cloths is an easy thing to do, so why not be on the safe side? At least that is my reasoning!"


Well, your reasoning makes sense in a way. Boiling will certainly remove any pathogens. Don't know about other chemicals. Still, I think if you run them in a washing machine the stuff won't jump from the cleaning stuff to the clothes. At least that's my thinking. But I'm not an expert. ;)