I just interviewed a helper who came highly recommended by her current employer. She does sound exceptionally good. The thing is I only need someone for 4-8pm and I was really looking for a part time (live out). She suggested that I sponsor her contract and find a friend who would give her a part time job in the morning. In that case, she could around 6.5k, enough for her to live out. I understand hiring someone part time is often illegal (as most of them don't have a HKID), doing what she suggests would obviously breaking the laws even more (although I know a lot of people are doing this.). Anyone has the same experience?
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Well firstly live out is illegal unless you have permission from the Immigration department which would require extreme circumstances so that would be one law broken. Secondly an FDH is only allowed to work at the address she is contracted to so that would be law no.2 broken. You really want to take the risk?
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No, you're right. Just want to keep things simple. I already have enough troubles with helpers. I originally had 2 live-in and they worked really happily together for 2 two years. Suddenly it's like the hell broke through. I'm replacing both. My first new one is arriving very soon and I don't want another live-in helper. What to do? I want a reliable part time who can cook well. But most of them are so unreliable, calling you only on the day saying she can't make it because this and that. What to do?
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Hi leightonhill, just sent you a PM.
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Well not really much you can do. Some people have live outs illegally, but what if things go wrong? If you do not get on with the helper and she informs immigration or she get's into trouble while out? I think the risks are too great. Maybe best to start with one helper and then introduce another later on. If you really do want to take the risk each offense carries a possible $50,000 fine and 2 years in a tax paid room behind a locked door. That's what you need to balance up..........
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FKKC
16 yrs ago
Try a local but it will be quite expensive, I think.
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The local domestic helpers are impossible! You need to book weeks in advance and they are v choosy about the locations and most only do cleaning like sparkle maids or merry maids
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We hired a full time FDH. She lived out (illegal I know). she only worked for us in the afternoons, so through a friend of a friend, our helper worked mornings for someone else. We just shared the cost of the helper's salary. Enough to give her her salary and live out rent.
All illegal, but it worked for us.
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hi, missdj, may i ask how much in total your helper gets? The one I interviewed asks for $6500 plus. And, how do you decide how to split the costs?
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Ed
16 yrs ago
http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/helpers/parttime.asp
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If you need 2 helpers and you don't want them to argue, try hiring 2 who are related to each other - e.g. 2 sisters, mother & daughter, 2 cousins, an aunt & a niece etc etc. I did this a couple of years ago when I needed 2 helpers and it worked fine.
Re. salary I think $6500 is really high, but of course it depends on a lot things, like what kind of house you're living in, the going rate for your area, what you are asking her to do & how intelligent / capable she is.
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It's crazy that supposed intelligent people will risk huge fines, jail time and deportation for something like this. Absolutely mind boggling.
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Only now I can understand why the illegal part time is charging as much as the legal ones. The legal ones are never available (demand>supply) and so they dictate the hours they want to come to help you not when you need them, and in our case, no one wants to come to the Peak anyway.
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leightonhill, Ours was paid 4,000 HK a month. Us and the 'other' split 4,000 Hk in half equal. Then the boarding house here is 1,000 and we split that equal as well. The helper ate at our home and could also eat at the other 'employers.' Any problems or issues always came to us, as we were the one who signed her. She also had Sundays off and usually half day Saturday.
The boarding house is very close to where we both live, so she often walked to work and if she took the bus, it was minimal and we paid for her bus fare.
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Thank you for the info, missdu. That sounds a great arrangement. I guess the thing is to find someone you can totally trust. Finding someone just thro an advert makes me feel a bit uncomfortable however capable she appears to be. I've just advertised thro the Labour dept emphasing this is a long term job 3.5hours everyday 5 days week for $3000/month bef transport and food allowance. We'll see how bad the economy really is. In normal time, the locals wouldn't be interested at all.
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