Domestic Help

Many people find the concept of employing domestic help difficult to accept initially, but it can be a wonderful way of life and it is a good way of giving a job to local people.

Singles usually hire a maid for one or two days per week and pay them US$ 10 to US$ 15 per day.

Families usually hire a permanent maid, who will do the cooking, laundry, ironing and house cleaning for $250 to $300 per month. You may want to consider hiring an additional person (usually a man) to do the heavy cleaning once or twice a month (anywhere from $20 to $30 per day).

Families with preschool age children may find it necessary to hire a nanny, whose main responsibility will be caring for your children for $ 300 to $ 350 per month.

Each townhouse or apartment has a small maid’s room and bathroom. You are expected to provide her with a uniform, a set of sheets, a towel, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, and shampoo.

Please be aware that all maids (even those who work just one day per week) are entitled to the following :

• December Bonus
  Calculated as half of the average salary that your maid have received between July and December. Should be paid every December, no later than December 15.

• July Bonus
  Calculated as half of the average salary that your maid have received between January and June. Should be paid every July, no later than July 15.

• CTS
  Calculated as half of the average salary that your maid have received during a year. Should be paid on a yearly basis, during the month in which she start working for you. The first payment should be made at the beginning of the second year.
  CTS can also be paid at the end of the relationship, but in order to avoid misunderstandings, we highly recommend you to pay it on a yearly basis, and make sure you have a proof of payment.

• Vacations
  Only FULL TIME maids are entitled to 15 days of paid vacations per year.
  Full time maids are those who work more than 24 hours per week in your house.

• Social Security
  If your maid works more than 24 hours per week in your house, it is mandatory that you register her as your employee in the Social Security Institution and that you make sure that the following payments are made on her behalf on a monthly basis :

ESSALUD......09.00 % of the maid salary (Health)
ONP.............13.00 % of the maid salary (Pension)

If your maid works less than 24 hours in your house, but you are sharing her with other school employees, we recommend that you register her as employee of any of you and that you still as a group, make the above mentioned contributions on a monthly basis.

Based on the Peruvian minimum salary (S/. 550), this represents a total of S/. 121 per month (approx. $40 per month) . Please note that, it is common practice to pay social security based on the minimum salary.

Also, it is important for you to know that:

ESSALUD...S/. 49.50 should be paid by employer (you)
ONP..........S/. 71.50 should be paid by employee (maid)

If you want, you can assume your maid's portion. But, try to make sure that both (ESSALUD and ONP) are paid, in order to avoid future problems.

Regarding social security inscription, we have a person who can do this paperwork on your behalf. She will charge you S/. 80 for the inscription (S/.40.00 to register you as employer, and S/. 40.00 to register your current maid as employee).
 
IMPORTANT

We recommend that you buy a notebook, and request your maid to sign for each monthly payment received, and for each extraordinary payment received, such as Bonus and CTS. Also, we recommend that you register the dates in which vacations have been taken, and request her to also sign that.