Cost of Service Help In Doha

Spanish expat family with children and pets needs to find another Expat family for our live-in house maid in Qatar.

We just brought her here from the Philippines 2 months ago , did all the paperwork ourselves. She is reliable , hardworking, is accustomed to animals and children and has referrals. We need to leave the country asap and need to transfer her sponsorship. She earns 1450 Riyals, 1 day off weekly.

If interested please email [email protected] will send CV and details upon request.

tanuzahir did you find a maid, cuz even im looking for one, and i want her to do the same and come thrice in a week, i also live near la cigale...

Aviduser I agree with you 100%. But I think that SOME Westerners would treat them the same way as a locals. Unfortunatly it is a human mentality, some people are simply not humans, they are dogs. Unfortunately, SOME humanoids DA exist among US human beings. They lazy and fat hahahah

I am willing to pay only 400 a month for someone to come everyday and clean the bathrooms and floor. Do you guys know anyone that will work in the bin mahmood area. I am really close to la cigale and toy r us...

Thank you very much for the info provided here. Could anyone comment on current price ranges as the numbers provided are maybe outdated.

Thank you.

Hello! I may recommend you gilbert maid services who are known to be one of the best cleaning services in the city. If you want a quality, good services at an affordable price, you may simply pay them a visit on the link provided above.

Could you help with an agency?

plz tell me the name of that agency

I'm looking for a good agency. Can anyone recommend one?

I understand that most of you pay agency fees etcetera, etcetera to employ a person to be your maid....

but didn't you ask the person you hire how much they spent before reaching here to your place,.. it's not that i'm saying you need to compensate that as employer; just be CONSIDERATE, they to have a lot of cost to consider to agree for their salary:

1. If the person already have a family (would you think she/he would rather clean other peoples home than theirs?)

2. If they are young, then would you think they got enough education? they to sometimes pay, you can say a "ridiculous", amount to their agency back home, just to get a little higher than what would they get back in their home country.

3. also not to mention, the emotional cost of being distant from your family just to send them to school, have a decent life, not knowing how they develop maturity (thats with regard to those who have children.

What i want to imply is that, as a person hiring another person to help you, either the work is huge or even for a small amount of effort/skill, even they are uneducated. It's not about having an industry having a standard salary it's you as a person how much you can share for your fellow human being. Please do remember they to are Human being with a small oppurtunity because of their race.It may not be their fault to be born on their race but, an ample consideration in your heart would do big at the expense of no one.

i was talking about that in a different post, i have already checked ip cameras, so i will be able to check it from the net and get family and friends to do so from abroad so there is always an eye on her...and it doesnt cost that much...

like for 5 wireless ip cameras, and a router, and extra hard disk, is around 5-7000 riyals..it is worth every penny

Honestly, I would put any baby who is incapable of communication or speech in a daycare. But, if you feel more comfortable at home with a nanny than get a nanny cam first, and put them into all the rooms. Regardless of price it is much worth the effort.

i have heared many horror maid/nannies stories, but i dont think that a maid would do something horrible if you treated her good; like i have heared of a nanny that was beaten by her sponser and she retaliated by putting their 4 months old baby in the oven when they were away from the house. at the same time you must not be too nice to them, because then they will take u for granted .. in other words treat them like a decent human being, as you would treat anyone else in your place of work , but dont let them get too comfortable, i'm talking out of experience, i moved to the GCC with my canadian values and i am used to treating people with respect and kindness regardless of their job, but my maid took me for granted and started telling me that she is sick everyday and i ended up doing the house work and paying her for nothing ...lol...

as far as wages are concerned, see the maids came her on a contract knowing that they will be paid 600 R/ mnth and she agreed to that because that amount of money will give her and her family a better life style in her home town...just like any other expat. now if you as a sponsor want to reward her with more money its all up to you, if you make the money then why not share it.

and i would have to agree with Bigdaddy .. i will not bargain with my baby's nanny or daycare..i wouldn't risk that...i would not mind paying 3000+ R/mnth as long as i know my baby is happy and well taken care of.

cheers

I have also heard some horror stories about maids being misttreated. I also saw with my own eyes the treatment of maids in Beruit on a recent trip just before the war. I saw on several occasion large families eating and drinking and excluding the maid who had to STAND during the meal holding a baby. I saw this twice in downtown Beruit. On the second occasion I was so incensed that a poor girl had to stand whilst her "family ate and drank" that I asked the waiter to give the girl a seat and brought her a coke. I hope that any western families reading this will pay their Nannies/maids a decent wage and if you are ever in Beruit offer her a seat and a drink.

xihuitl,

In your previous post you stated "the case of a maid poisoning the water and all the family members dying."

Could you please direct me to this link...or tell me the newspaper you read this from?...am interested in hearing about this incident..

Oh, and by the the way, according to the Human Rights Department in Doha, it's not only "some" Qatari's that abuse housemaids....it's very common.

Peace xxx

You said "this amount covers working 8 days a week and living with the family" and "I know it might sound like slavery for some of you."

Working 8 days a week and living with the family indeed DOES sound like slavery!!!! :)

I get a bit het up about the wages situation for anyone from overseas in this country. I am an expat and get well otherwise I would not be here. Lets be honest we all do it for the money, not the wonderful cultural expierence. Well some of us might but I imagine the novelty would wear off pretty quick without good wages. Anyway I digress. It upsets me to see the workers in the blazing hot sun digging up the road during the summer. I know they are getting low wages, but obviously the wages are higher than their own country but it doesn't really make it any better.

As for maids, nannies and cleaners. I guess I have seen so many people treating their help like third class citizens in shopping malls and restraunts that I get upset to think that Westerners would treat them the same way. In fact I don't think that we do we, are more polite and humane than that. My friend who recently hired a maid said she was relieved not to be working for a local family anymore as they were so horrible to her.

Everyone deserves a decent living wage. I suppose we pay people what we feel comfortable with and what we can live with.

I would like to suggest you when you get your domestic helper/nanny not to live your little girl with her 100 percents. They can do the houseworks and you can look after your baby yourself. It makes me cringe some of my girlfriend who don't work, looking for a maid so the maid can look after the 2 mths old baby full time while they can go shopping or coffee without the baby.

But i think you already know anyway ... when i met you, you seems a very caring mammy to her :-)

Good discussion, thanks all.

I think it was a bit miss interpretive the point of the post all I wanted to do is give information is each person's choice what they want to do. In my case I am a full time mom I will not live my kid with anyone, but that is just me. What I hate is when people try to abuse me I don't mind paying good salaries, for a good service no matter what this service is.

As far as Qatari's been abusive I agree there are some cases, but only some. I know Qatari's families witch maid are sent to school give extra money for different occasions, are taken to shopping, etc. In the same way there are cases of nannies abusing kids, there was last month in the news paper the case of a maid poisoning the water and all the family members die. There are always two sides of the coin. Again all I wanted is to let people be aware of cost is each one choice to give more. .

Decent human beings will treat others decently.

Go to restaurants several times here, especially for lunch on a weekend, and you will inevitably see a maid standing off to the side somewhere while the family she works for is stuffing itself.

They will be dressed well, perform all their religious duties and present a "civilized" face to the world but to me they are hypocrits who are missing out on the point of life.

If you read Arabic you will notice many religious stickers on cars. These are the same cars that will cut you up, barge in from the left to make the green light while you've been waiting for 10 minutes and have tissues and other debris being flung from them.

We're here talking about paying 600, 1000 and 1500 but there are many who aren't paid on time or haphazardly every few months.

There's a basic wage set by a contract which should be honored. Anything else is completely up to you. If you want to overpay that's up to you. It could be extra pay, gifts or even gold rings and ear-rings as my wife has done so many times.

But the bottom line is decency. If you're a decent human being then you'll treat people you come into contact with decently no matter how menial their job is.

Looking back through the thread, I think maid/babysitter and maid looking after twins could be argued we are talking about nannies aswell.....don't you think...or am I mis-reading this thread.....go back see for yourself...is this semantics here..my profound friend

Looking back through the thread, I think maid/babysitter and maid looking after twins could be argued we are talking about nannies aswell.....don't you think...or am I mis-reading this thread.....go back see for yourself...is this semantics here..my profound friend

I'm no genious but I'll assume her company pays for her housing, so she has no control over the worker that built her house but what control she does have she is trying to do the right thing. yes yes I know, we can't all be perfect, but to recognize and try is atleast a start to something. Hypocrasy is everywhere,but should that stop us. I get a kick out of the students who put down certain countries as they drink the product, wear the clothes and idolize the sports figure from that same bad country.

You are obviously a well educated person my friend, so all I ask, is it right to expoit someone if they allow you?

Bigdaddy, we're talking house cleaners; maids and not nannies.

aviduser, In England nannies get paid that much because of the cost of living. It's unfair to compare as the argument works both ways. While the person paying doesn't have to pay income tax the payee also doesn't have to pay VAT, transportation, etc.

600 QAR is over 8000 Pesos in the Philippines. That's a lot of money for unskilled labor. IT IS fair to say that because you are worth the sum of your skills. That's why salespeople get paid more than housemaids.

600 QAR is the wage paid to live-in help who also get their food and accommodation for free.

As has been pointed out already in this thread freelancers can and do get paid a lot more. I also pointed out that we once got a maid for 600 QAR and she ended up getting 1150 QAR a month. We were not bound by anything to do that.

"Anybody thinking that is an acceptable wage for a human being should be disgusted with them sleves." Do not patronize people. Laborers get paid 700 QAR a month to build the house you live in. If they were to be paid England wages you couldn't afford to live in that house.

It is up to employers to treat employees fairly and decently. Unfortunately this issue is a blight on humanity as a whole and not localized.

"...are forced to work 14-hour days, with virtually no break... denying the workers urgent medical care and forcing them into cramped living quarters with poor safety and hygiene."

What place do you think they are talking about? England, that's right. In 2006. Read it all here.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article1178557.ece

Rennee

finally someone making some sense. We are talking of paying maids 1,500 riyals a month. In English money 224 pound a month.

I would like to see anyone from England hire a maid/nanny for that sort of money in the UK or the USA.

And some of you want to pay 600 riyals about 90 pound.

Anybody thinking that is an acceptable wage for a human being should be disgusted with them sleves. It already makes me sick seeing how Qataris treat thier maids, I thought us westerners might have a bit more respect for peoples needs and perhaps would think that low wages and exploiting people from poorer countries was not what we did.

It is not enough to say that in their country they would not be able to earn the sort of money, even at 600 riyals, that they would earn say in Manilla.

It is basic human decancy to give these people a fair living wage. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not deserve to have a maid or treated with any respect.

Try putting the boot on the other foot would you like to be paid nothing for 5 days hard work.

No one pays tax here look at paying your maid a fair wage as a small Tax and even at the higher rates quoted would come no where near what even NI would come to in England.

Some people on this string make me laugh. Debating about how its bad to over pay a nanny. Over pay a nanny....I can keep saying it and it just sounds funny. entrusting someone with your child, and trying to get a deal at the same time. I can appreciate getting deals, but there are some things maybe one shouldn't cheap out on, say lazer eye surgery, nannies, schooling for your child. There are places and times one should fine the deal, feel good about getting below cost but is the sake of your child one of them.

Just because one would let you exploit them does that me you should?

If a cashier gives you back to much change do you keep it...its a personel decision but one that describes your character.

So in the end I pay my nanny well especially how you people are descibing salaries, and when I walk in from work and seeing her reading on the bed to my child, I'm O.K. that I didn't get a deal and I'm being taken advantage of and I pay to much.

Its all about respect....one way I can tell if you show respect and even deserve it....just ask yourself do you know your nannies birthday? To the ones out there that get it, they'll understand the implication of what this means, to the others...well some people just don't get it.

No pun intended ... you are not taking advantage of them, but they might taking advantage of you.

Again what is alot for you might means nothing for someone else. For them getting paid QR 1400 might be alot of money, but for you paying them QR 1400 is nothing. As far as both side happy so be it. :-)

Xihuitl,

What I find abusive and unfair is how some Qatari's treat their maids. There have been reports of physical abuse and violence....all this for a 600QR salary!!

I pay my maid 1400QR,(she works 4 hrs a day, 5 days a week) and am happy to know that this money goes to her family to help with education, food and everyday living.

Is a nice feeling to know that I am helping out someone less fortunate then me...and not taking advantage of them.

I did let her go, but it toook forever to find someone--still in the process of finding someone I want to keep as a permanent part-time.

Really it seems that she is in a very comfortable situation you can get some one else that can actually be helpfull, for Philippine ladies the costs are 600QR and as I wrote living in with the person. I was talking to a nanny in the play ground the other day she was telling me how she was working for a Qatari family with a 600QR salary . Then she found an American lady and ask her for 1300QR. She was telling me how Americans will pay anything and won't give as much work as Qatari's. She was of course very happy but to me it seems a bit unfair and abusive.

the most important thing is you need to have an eye on the ppl who come to do your work.

Wow, she had a lot of nerve! I'm assuming that was the lst time she cleaned for you...

the maid situation here is crazy!! They do nothing and charge an arm and a leg for it. I had a lady come clean my floors, and wash my dishes and it took her 3 hours!! she then tried to leave the house with out taking out the garbage. And this is for a 2 bdrm. appartment. grrr...it's so frusturating because I pay them the minimum wage in Canada so I don't do the pity fest the least I am asking is to clean my small apartment.

I think as soon as they see me they just automatically put this "rich stupid American" label on me and sit around doing nothing.

Goodness once while I was cooking, I took a peak at the cleaner to see what she was doing and she had a chair pulled up in my room and was sitting chatting on the phone.

I can go on and on and on, but really when you pay these cleaners per hour some/many do try to take advantage of you by doing nothing for a loooooooooooong time.

the maid situation here is crazy!! They do nothing and charge an arm and a leg for it. I had a lady come clean my floors, and wash my dishes and it took her 3 hours!! she then tried to leave the house with out taking out the garbage. And this is for a 2 bdrm. appartment. grrr...it's so frusturating because I pay them the minimum wage in Canada so I don't do the pity fest the least I am asking is to clean my small apartment.

I think as soon as they see me they just automatically put this "rich stupid American" label on me and sit around doing nothing.

Goodness once while I was cooking, I took a peak at the cleaner to see what she was doing and she had a chair pulled up in my room and was sitting chatting on the phone.

I can go on and on and on, but really when you pay these cleaners per hour some/many do try to take advantage of you by doing nothing for a loooooooooooong time.

He comes once a week to clean half the house, ie 2 bedrooms (we have 3), kitchen, one toilet (2 here), hall, sitting room, Living room.

He starts around 0830 and finishes around 1230.

He is very good. I think he is working with one of the outsourced cleaning companies here.

He does our house, and 2 of my brothers, but on different days. He has other clients as well.

I think Qr.1,500/- is pretty steep on all counts. Unless the person is a trained nanny.

Thanks for suggestions.We will look around some more,maybe go to the agency at the last.

If you are getting a live-in maid then you are paying for both her food, some clothing and accommodation.

You already have to pay 6000 QR visa and agency fees and to think that they would than ask for 1500 and above and salary is outrageous.

We had one once who came in on 700, we gave her money to help in her children's education and at the end of her 2 years she was making 1150 per month.

She ended up taking, without telling us, T-shirts, chocolates, detergent, books (novels) and food.

I took the books and let her keep the rest.

Like novita77 said, hourly help is 20-25 per hour. Agencies charge 20/hour with 4 hours minimum but to think an independent part-timer would want over 1500 a month you're just being fleeced.

The Philippines will shortly raise the minimum salary for live-in maids to $200/month with a view to increase it to $400 next year.

A bit of both to cheap for help compare to my country and to expensive to charge a foreign person.

I suggest if you are looking for a maid call an agency you can chose from cooks, babysitter, etc. and even if she doesn't work for you there is a grace period to exchange. Remember this person is going to be living with you and in contact with your children we have to be always careful...

If you sponsor the maid 2000 QR is a way too expensive. But then again in your compound mostly american family. And i think most maids there over paid by the employer.

My Maltese friend used to pay the filipino maid QR 800, she sponsor the maid.

IMO, if you offer QR 1.100 i think it is a good deal. You just spoil the market when you overpay them.

crazy too expensive or too cheap?

My sister in law just got a girl from Philippines. She paid 5000 to the agency they have people that you can chouse from. They will bring the girl with in 20 days and help you with the visa and all. This girl lives with her. My sister in law provides food, shampoo and all of that, but her salary is only 600Qr.... it's crazy

We are actually looking for live in maid to help us with twins and cooking ,I was just talked to Phillipino lady who has this job in our villa complex and has a sister in Manila who wants to come.She told me that they earn from 1500 to 2000 a month here in Doha.We have to provide food and place to stay(with us)I thought that was a bit much,we are looking at maybe QR 1100 and we would provide accomodation and food.Is this reasonable?Should I even come back with another offer or just forget it and look somewhere else?

Thanks!

I have someone to come twice a week just to do the floors and bathrooms. He is here for around nine hours a week. I pay him 500 a month.

hi... QR 500 or QR 600 normally when the maid live in. You pay for the agent, her visa and you cover her cost of living.

some of my friends have live out full time maid. Mostly they work 5 days a week, from morning 8am to around 3 or 4 pm. Depend on the agreement before you employ them. My friends paying the maid around 1500 to 1800 QR. Then you have to discuss in advance about the transport wether you will pay for the transport or including for the wages.

However part time hourly maid normally 20 to 25 QR an hour.