Just ask - How much is the salary as a domestic helper in Singapore ?

Hi Rosa in Singapore domestic helper on the average earns S$350 p/m if she's Filipino and S$250 p/m if she's from Indonesia or Sri-Lanka. The difference in salary is mainly due to the the fact that Philippino maids have a stronger, if not perfect command of English, are higher educated and usually more efficient in their work. There is a large number of 'maids' employed in Singapore, these are live-in girls usually from the Philippines or Indonesia. They are common both in expatriate and Singaporean households, especially when both husband and wife work. Common tasks for maids is overall house cleaning, washing, ironing, cooking and taking care of the children.

On top of the salary, the employer is expected to pay one round-trip ticket to her home country per year. These tickets are usually quite reasonably priced and most airlines have special discounted rates for maids. If the maid chooses not to return to her home country, the equivelant of the ticket should be paid out to her in cash. Furthermore, the employer is responsible for supplying the maid with a food and lodging, While most maids have one off-day per week (and some one off-day per month),as a employer they have additional costs for your live-in maid, they will have to pay a S$345 p/m levy to the government and a S$5000 immigration bond. This bond will only have to be paid in case your maid brakes the law or terms of her work permit. The government and agency in Singapore is taking a proactive approach for foreign domestic helper to help ease maid and make them feel at home in Singapore.


Tour to help ease maids in
New scheme includes info on local festivals, help on stress relief
By Melissa Sim

Foreign domestic workers being briefed yesterday on how Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore. They were on a tour of historical and cultural sites in Singapore as part of a programme to help them feel more at home here. -- PHOTO: MINISTRY OF MANPOWER
THIRTY foreign domestic workers were given a tour of a few historical and cultural sites in Singapore yesterday as part of a new programme to help them feel more at home in the country.

The four-month pilot 'Settling In' Programme (SIP), which started yesterday, is run by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Skills Training (Fast), a non-profit organisation.
The first stop of the morning was Raffles' Landing Site along the Singapore River. For many of the participants, this was their first glimpse of Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles - not to mention, the river.
They also toured the Merlion Park, Chinatown and the Kampong Glam Heritage Village, passing through Little India and Orchard Road.
Earlier in the morning, they had learnt about Singapore's various festivals and received a quick Mandarin lesson of common terms and greetings.
Employer Peggy Leong, an administrative officer in her early 40s, said she immediately signed her helper up for the programme after reading about it in The Sunday Times

Trade in domestic helpers: Causes, mechanisms, and consequences

News Update PNP orders gun stores closed

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered the closure of all stores owned by a firearms and ammunition dealer across the country following its alleged involvement in anomalous gun loans for police recruits in Central Mindanao. No less than Director General Jesus Verzosa, PNP chief, ordered the temporary suspension of the license to operate granted by the PNP to R. Espinelli Trading, one of the popular duly-licensed firearms and ammunition dealer in the country. "Likewise, the Civil Security Group ordered the temporary closure of the storage vault of R. Espinelli Trading at the Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) in Camp Crame," said Verzosa. "The gun dealer was also ordered to turn over to FED all firearms on display at the different gun store branches," he added. The move was in response to the recommendation of the PNP-Internal Affairs Service (IAS), which is currently investigating numerous complaints in the facilitation of loans to police recruits undergoing training in Central Mindanao. "The investigation uncovered some irregularities in the purchase of firearms by police recruits through loan facilitated by R. Espinelli Trading," said Director Ifor Magbanua, IAS officer-in-charge. Magbanua bared that 57 police recruits undergoing basic training at the Regional Training School 12 in General Santos City were offered gun loans by R. Espinelli Trading through the Public Safety Savings and Loan Association Inc. (PSSLAI) for the purchase of handguns supplied by the gun dealer. The official declared that the transaction was in gross violation of a PNP policy regarding salary loans for police recruits.