[snagito]

Dear All,

Seeking a little advice. Our helper has been with us for 7 months now and we are very happy with her and she seems happy with us. We started her out at 4000HKD plus food allowance of 500 HKD, and after 6 months based on good performance raised it to 4400 HKD with food allowance of 500 HKD. She is going home for 3 weeks for Christmas and we are paying for half of the ticket (in lieu of the one-way she's entitled to expect from us at beginning of contract) - 1700 HKD is the 50% cost - a bit higher due to Christmas and also since she needs to get further than Manila.

Her birthday is on Christmas eve and we'd like to give her a birthday present and a Christmas present as I know this is more important to her than Chinese New Year festival. I am sure she would prefer money more than anything else.

How much do you think would be a reasonable amount? Would like to give her something that would make her happy. It's our first time having a helper so I really have no idea so I would sincerely welcome all input. Thank you!

[carang]

our helper has been with us for 3 years.
her first contract was at $3280(minimum when we hired her) but as the gov't increased the min so did we. by the end it was $3440. she eats the same as we do, so no food allowance. we did pay her bonuses and that usually amounted to about $800/month.

when we renewed her contract, we upped it to $3750. we havent' given her a bonus in a while, but that is simply because we haven't been able to afford it. i have on occassion gone to a philippine provision shop and bought her a magazine and some goodies.

her first xmas, we gave her a dvd player. for her birthday, we split the cost of a tv. last year, i gave her a bunch of fancy bath stuff and $. we have also given her money. usually $500 for each of Christmas, her birthday and CNY.

[Ali71]

I have heard that the going rate for helpers in Repulse Bay area, where salaries tend to be high (of at least 4000 + food + bonus) for birthday $500 and Christmas/or Chinese New Year extra month's salary

[mintycat]

I tend to give my helpers $500 for birthdays, $1000 when they go back home to the Phil (extra money to buy stuff for their kids etc), $1000 for Christmas and $1000 for CNY. Right now both of them are on minimum salary of $3500 (they started June and July of this year) and we plan to increase their salary to $4000 in January 2008 because we are very happy with their performance. They don't get a food allowance because they eat what we eat but they are pretty free to buy whatever snacks or drinks they want with the grocery money. They never go overboard.