Cost of a maid (once a week)

[DON NOLL]

Paying a maid $60/day seems very excessive for Ecuador. Perhaps
that’s how Americans/Europeans cause inflation in the countries
they move to. Seriously, $60?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

Don, who is paying a maid $60 a day? I pay mine $10 for about three hours of work (we have a very small condo) — but I think that ($10) is the going rate per job.

[DON NOLL]

Those were the estimates posted on the “Cost of Living” tables. Perhaps
they should be updated.

[SUZAN HASKINS]

I think those are monthly estimates… but I will take a look, thank you!

[DON NOLL]

Todo por culpa de mi. You are right. Thank you.

[LIGIA GIOVANNONI]

You know,
Cleaning is not the most pleasant job so it should be paid well. They don’t deserve to be exploited just because they don’t have an education. Just my point of view….

[DON NOLL]

$10-15/day IS good pay for unskilled labor in a third-world country.
By the way, I have heard that Ecuador is absolutely FULL with spiders.
Everywhere you go – big spiders!

[SUZAN HASKINS]

Ligia, they are being well paid — what we pay is above the minimum wage. 🙂

[FRANK AGIATO]

Susan, on the wages paid for services such as housekeeper, gardner, mechanic, etc. is 10-15/day pay the same across the board? What about tipping? Is there a standard rate of tipping for all of the above?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

HI Frank. I pay $10 to have my small 900-sq. ft. apartment cleaned. It takes her only a couple of hours. Minimum wage is something like $3.30 an hour. I’d pay maybe twice that much if I wanted her to be here all day long. As for tipping, often a tip of 10% (“servicio” or “propina”) is added on to your bill in more upscale restaurants (the kind that give official receipts). You decide if you want to leave more… If I have received good service, I’ll often leave 10 or 15% on the pre-tax/pre-servicio amount. Never tip taxi drivers unless they do something extraordinary for you. And it’s nice but not mandatory to leave $2 or $3 on the pillow for your chambermaid in a hotel or hostel and to give $1 to the hotel doorman if he grabs you a taxi and gives instructions to the driver. Bellmen get about $1 per bag.

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