Paying Domestic Worker

In my previous post I wrote about how much capital I know I have. In this I tackle another question that might be interesting to people to compare their situations — how much we pay the domestic worker who works in our home and how did we reach that number.

I have written earlier about how I came across the mental block of hiring someone’s service for domestic work. That was the time we had hired M’s services.

When M came to our 1 BHK (where Swathi and I live), she was used to only doing sweeping/mopping and washing plates. But what we really wanted was someone to cook for us (once a day). So we told her we would be fine with however she cooks and asked her if she could cook too. She was okay with this.

We did not know how much to pay. So we asked her. She said she usually get ₹2,000 (or was it ₹3,000?) for just cleaning and would take ₹3,000 (or was it ₹4,000?). We agreed. This was in the beginning of 2021.

We have forgotten lots of details. By 2023 we were paying ₹4,000.

In the beginning of 2024, M left Bengaluru and after two months of nobody working, we found L through our neighbor.

With L, we had the same discussion on how much to pay, and she just asked us how much we will pay. We said we were paying ₹4,000 earlier, and she said okay. So L started working in our house for 4k. Then this year, we made it ₹4,500.

Other stuff

Sunday is holiday. They also take holiday whenever they want (by informing earlier in person, that day over phone, or not) without any pay cut. Advance payments/loans we have given a few times on request to M.

Bonus during festivals we either pay or give gift (as per what M/L says is good), or both.

Both M and L had a kid who would occasionally accompany them. They would keep themselves busy with whatever coloring books, color pencils, etc we had. Swathi tries to have conversation with the kids, I don’t.

Swathi also tries to have small-talk, build relationship, etc with M/L. With M she was pretty thick. With L, due to language barrier (L speaks only Tamil), she hasn’t yet built that rapport I think.

Nevertheless many health related issues they do speak openly with Swathi.

The Point

As I wrote in the other post about capital, the point of documenting all this is precisely to create transparency to enable comparison. It might evoke emotions inside readers (good or bad, positive or negative, neutral, shrug, whatever), but that’s okay and intended.

Some more resources

If you want to read more about demands of DW union(s), you’re better off visiting links like:

• All Work, Won’t Pay
• Domestic Work is Work: an illustrated booklet
• In Bengaluru and Chennai, domestic workers have to work in six households to make minimum wage
• Underpaid and overworked, Bengaluru’s domestic workers face exploitation