Maid and Driver's Salary for 2011

**jim69** · 12-09-12, 14:34

I see a problem with the system for live in staff. At the moment all the daily needs for our girls is covered by us, clothes, food, pulsar toiletries etc, and of course a place to sleep and wash.

How can this then be calculated into the minimum wage? If you tell them to live out, then a kost and food etc will cost them about 5-800 a month, on average. so the actual disposable income will be about the same or less.

Confusing now.

**atlantis** · 12-09-12, 15:55

Originally Posted by jim69

I see a problem with the system for live in staff. At the moment all the daily needs for our girls is covered by us, clothes, food, pulsar toiletries etc, and of course a place to sleep and wash.

How can this then be calculated into the minimum wage? If you tell them to live out, then a kost and food etc will cost them about 5-800 a month, on average. so the actual disposable income will be about the same or less.

Confusing now.

All stipulations concerning upah/salaries for live in or live out will be set by further regulations enacted by local governments. From what I recall from the draft of law, each PRT should have a working contract signed in two exemplaries and should be for a period of 1 year, obviously extendable. The contract should be registered to the Manpower department.

A PRT* should be of 18 years minimum and should be working maximum 10 hours in a day. Derogation can be given to PRT whose age is in between 15 and 18 years old, with the written authorisation of their wali/parents but they should not be working more than 4 hours a day and should be given time for school/belajar. The later is a mandatory provision.

Any PRT should be entitle to 1 full month of salary as THR. Any PRT should be authorised one day off minimum per week and at least 12 days off per year (on top of the weekly rest of course).
Time should be given for prayer and other religious obligation.

The supervisation and enforcement of the rules will be done by Nakertrans, but also by the Pak lurah/kepala desa/pak RT with the power of inflicting administrative sanction.

It's obvious that the law will be enforced selectively. nakertrans is certainly not gonna be interested to check if all stipulations are respected in villages among families which aren't assumed wealthy. However, if you live in the same town than nakertrans office, if you are assumed to be wealthy (don't worry, if you are expat couple, a mixed indo/expat couple or an indonesian of chinese descent family, you ARE assumed to be wealthy

), nakertrans may be interested to check if you comply with the law.

*Are considered PRT, not only the maids. The tukang kebun, driver, private satpam, nurses...etc are included in the law.

**mer2012** · 12-09-12, 17:24

there you go,,, some will definetely dEg Deg seR with this (new regulations)... Thank u so much for the explanation pak Atlantis, so the maids dont need to speak. Thanks for speaking the soon-to-be (hopefully) newest undang2. Many worries to them with underpaid n under-age maids surely,,, thanks for the thoughts bapak2 anggota DPR,,,

**jim69** · 12-09-12, 17:33

What about families who rely on the small money they get as a maid. Many will be out of a job, and I think if the law is enforced it will become such a pain in the ass to hire a maid, better to just do it yourself.
I never needed a maid in the UK, I did not when i first came here.

It will just become a black market operation, like so many other jobs here.

I only took a second maid as a favour to the first one, who wanted her friend to work. If the rules are enforced then I wont be in a position to employ both of them.

**Hombre de Maiz** · 13-09-12, 08:41

The old brother who wants to buy a fancy motorcycle, ha? My favorite are the stories about the fathers who decide that they are already too exhausted (sudah capek) to work.

**Jaime C** · 18-09-12, 15:09

We talked with the local Pak RT the other day, and in Bandung, the standard live out maids salary is 400k per month in our neighborhood. Normal 6 day work week.

**kingwilly** · 18-09-12, 15:27

Originally Posted by jim69

This is why things need to be kept in perspective. If you are paying your maid close to 2 million, a girl with little education, how can you justify the salary of a fresh graduate secretary of about 2.5 million.

Originally Posted by jim69

If the government are not careful they will actually harm the uneducated population, by making them too expensive to employ.

Jim, I'm sure that you are doing the right thing by your staff, but these arguments really are bumpf and nonsense used by people happy to exploit cheap labour.

Just because graduate wages are weak does not justify keeping house staff salaries low.

Nor will all their jobs suddenly disappear.

**nd_eric_77** · 18-09-12, 16:44

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Jim, I'm sure that you are doing the right thing by your staff, but these arguments really are bumpf and nonsense used by people happy to exploit cheap labour.

Just because graduate wages are weak does not justify keeping house staff salaries low.

Nor will all their jobs suddenly disappear.

You might be surprised how price-sensitive the market for PRTs is among local middle-class workers. My coworkers pay an average of around 800.000 / month for live-in, and I have heard several of them say that if the price were to double, they would simply switch from being two-income families to just single-income families. The expat population is a very very small fraction of the total number of people employing PRTs. If the DPR passes a maid regulation, I could envision a growing market for inexpensive locally manufactured electric dishwashing machines.

**lantern** · 18-09-12, 17:19

Originally Posted by nd_eric_77

If the DPR passes a maid regulation, I could envision a growing market for inexpensive locally manufactured electric dishwashing machines.

Perhaps the laid off maids can get a job in the dishwasher factory for better wages as they would be considered workers. In Europe the labor movements fought long and hard for decent work conditions and wages and I would guess that they met the same arguments presented here.

**jim69** · 21-09-12, 09:38

Originally Posted by lantern

Perhaps the laid off maids can get a job in the dishwasher factory for better wages as they would be considered workers. In Europe the labor movements fought long and hard for decent work conditions and wages and I would guess that they met the same arguments presented here.

In Europe there is a decent education system, and people with a good education should be able to earn more. Here it is different. Hence the reason I want to give education to our two maids.
That way they can enter the workers market.