payment for work on rest day

Wonder how much people pay helpers for working on a rest day. For the odd occasions on which I needed my helper's services on a Sunday, I paid HKD200 extra to her. She told me yesterday that her friend got paid an extra HKD1,000 a month for not taking Sundays off (2 helpers in the household and they alternate). Seems that I'm paying her very little? Should I top up?

We pay 70/hour.

Agreed with GreenValleys. I should have been more clear: We pay 70/hour for what we perceive as "overtime", for example if she needs to work several evenings one week beyond her normal hours. If she has to work on a Sunday, we pay 70/hour AND she gets an extra day off.

For our previous helper, the first time we needed her to work on a Sunday, we offered her the next Saturday off. She agreed. Then on that Saturday she said she would rather work at home instead of going out as her friends were all working. We then gave her cash equal to twice her daily wage to compensate for the previous Sunday's work. Guess that's not illegal technically speaking, since she voluntarily gave up her swapped rest day and we technically didn't even have to pay for the Sunday's work (but of course we would want to be fair). Knowing her preference, on the few other Sundays we needed her to work, we simply told her she could choose either the double daily wage or another day off and of course she always chose the money.


With our current helper, we haven't needed her to work on Sundays yet except for the two weeks when she's travelling with us overseas. We again gave her double daily wage for the Sundays.


I'm wondering a bit about the prohibition against payment for work on a rest day (i.e., you have to give another day off instead of just $). Isn't that happening everyday in almost all professions? In my previous office, staff like secretaries just get paid overtime if they are asked to work over the weekend; never heard of the requirement of another day off. Is that also illegal, or is there something special about FDHs in this aspect? Just curious. . .

Thanks for your views. Yes, I think $200 a day is probably a little underpaying. My understanding of rest day is this: you need to give a full day's rest in every 7-day period. If helper requests or if you need helper to work (and helper agrees) on a rest day, you may make a payment in lieu of the day off. There is no statutory requirement regarding how much one should pay. It just says you'll need to pay her. I think I read somewhere sometime ago that you should pay her a day's salary. For statutory holidays, there is statutory obligation on an employer to give an alternate day off if a helper is required to work on a stat holiday. It is illegal to pay a helper off for work on a statutory holiday. Perhaps someone can help clarify if I've got it wrong. Like Miao Miao's, mine opts to be paid. However, it's only on rare occasions that I ask her to work. Usually, when I need help on Sundays, I dial for a local helper and pay by the hour. I know my helper wants to go to church and socialise so she'd be unwilling to forego the Sunday fun even with payment. I'd say 70/hour is very good payment. Locals charge 10 less. But of course, you'll have someone familiar around your house and you won't have your kid complaining that he can't communicate with the temp helper or that he can't eat the food she cooks ...