General guidelines requested, going wage for maid in Ajijic

You bring up an interesting point Parker. I have no idea how income tax works in Mexico or what the minimum salary per month or year is required before an income tax must be paid here in Mexico.

By the way your comment that most housekeepers make more than teachers, construction workers etc is very different than my experience. Yes house keepers especially if they work a few hours per week make more per hour than some construction workers make per hour, but much less than the construction worker who works 45 hours per week. Why? Because often the short term housekeeper is paid more per hour to pay for transportation etc. Again this is only my experience.

Thanks to everyone! There is a lot of good information here so far and some good guidelines to work with.

It seems a lot of holidays land on Monday and you are still obligated to pay, and if they work on the holiday you pay more for that day.

Is this part of Mexican labor law?

Yes
Here is the law in English: http://rollybrook.com/labor_law.htm
And an easier to read summary here: http://rollybrook.com/employee-pay.htm

Thanks Rolly!

Thanks Rolly, much appreciated and informative

MexicoPete wrote:You bring up an interesting point Parker. I have no idea how income tax works in Mexico or what the minimum salary per month or year is required before an income tax must be paid here in Mexico.

By the way your comment that most housekeepers make more than teachers, construction workers etc is very different than my experience. Yes house keepers especially if they work a few hours per week make more per hour than some construction workers make per hour, but much less than the construction worker who works 45 hours per week. Why? Because often the short term housekeeper is paid more per hour to pay for transportation etc. Again this is only my experience.

Income Tax; Not sure just a guess. My physical therapist, for services rendered would collect from us, write a “Factura’ which we then supplied to our insurance company for reimbursement. The therapist then had to pay, I believe, a 16% IVA tax on these earnings. Since this was physical act not much different than housekeeping, other than the perceived level of education one might assume that housekeepers may be required to pay some kind of tax. Then again maybe not?

This is my experience. We pay our housekeeper 500 pesos per week (approx. 4 hours each day, 2 days per week) she’s really on her own; all she needs to do is keep my house clean. She also works for some friends of ours with the same kind of conditions however she has worked for them longer so they’re paying 520 pesos per week. We also know of at least one other person that she works for but not the amount she’s paid. Knowing this ladies work ethic it would not surprise me if she has two properties per day, five days per week. That could possibly make her salary a little more than double what she makes from us and our friends.

We also know two couples that she previously worked for that she left their employment because she felt their homes were just too large and she wouldn’t be able to keep them to her desired standards. Ones of these couples even offered to hire her maid if she would continue and be overseer.

Friends while having their house remodeled their contractor needed to be in Mexico City on payday and asked our friends to give the other men their salary (this is about 3 years ago) and the weekly salary was 780 pesos. Now I realize that salaries have probably risen but I really doubt to the level that our housekeeper makes.

BTW, we give her a ride home after work but she provides her own meals and anything we don’t want she gets first-dibs.(this is the only thing she has ever asked of us other than some time off once, when her husband was ill.)

BTW, we have no doubt she’s worth every penny she earns.

[quote="Parker"][quote="MexicoPete"]You bring up an interesting point Parker. I have no idea how income tax works in Mexico or what the minimum salary per month or year is required before an income tax must be paid here in Mexico.

By the way your comment that most housekeepers make more than teachers, construction workers etc is very different than my experience. Yes house keepers especially if they work a few hours per week make more per hour than some construction workers make per hour, but much less than the construction worker who works 45 hours per week. Why? Because often the short term housekeeper is paid more per hour to pay for transportation etc. Again this is only my experience.
[/quote]

Income Tax; Not sure just a guess. My physical therapist, for services rendered would collect from us, write a “Factura’ which we then supplied to our insurance company for reimbursement. The therapist then had to pay, I believe, a 16% IVA tax on these earnings. Since this was physical act not much different than housekeeping, other than the perceived level of education one might assume that housekeepers may be required to pay some kind of tax. Then again maybe not?

This is my experience. We pay our housekeeper 500 pesos per week (approx. 4 hours each day, 2 days per week) she’s really on her own; all she needs to do is keep my house clean. She also works for some friends of ours with the same kind of conditions however she has worked for them longer so they’re paying 520 pesos per week. We also know of at least one other person that she works for but not the amount she’s paid. Knowing this ladies work ethic it would not surprise me if she has two properties per day, five days per week. That could possibly make her salary a little more than double what she makes from us and our friends.

We also know two couples that she previously worked for that she left their employment because she felt their homes were just too large and she wouldn’t be able to keep them to her desired standards. Ones of these couples even offered to hire her maid if she would continue and be overseer.

Friends while having their house remodeled their contractor needed to be in Mexico City on payday and asked our friends to give the other men their salary (this is about 3 years ago) and the weekly salary was 780 pesos. Now I realize that salaries have probably risen but I really doubt to the level that our housekeeper makes.

BTW, we give her a ride home after work but she provides her own meals and anything we don’t want she gets first-dibs.(this is the only thing she has ever asked of us other than some time off once, when her husband was ill.)

BTW, we have no doubt she’s worth every penny she earns.
[/quote]


That is the same rate of pay that my girlfriend in Guad. pays here maid for the same hours per week!

You have to compare apples to apples. A maid could make MORE than a school teacher on an hourly basis. But the maid usually does not work 40 hours per week. The school teacher is a Government employee who gets excellent benefits, IMSS, paid Holidays, other insurance and very low cost home and car loans which figure a lot into their salaries.

Comparing a maid to a construction laborer or Maestro is not equal either. If the maid works 20 hrs x 40 pesos = 800 pesos. Most maids don't work 40 hours per week. A construction laborer working 45 hours a week makes 1200 pesos which is 26.66 pesos per hour, so that is less. They should be getting IMSS too and all holidays..

northernguy wrote:You have to compare apples to apples. A maid could make MORE than a school teacher on an hourly basis. But the maid usually does not work 40 hours per week. The school teacher is a Government employee who gets excellent benefits, IMSS, paid Holidays, other insurance and very low cost home and car loans which figure a lot into their salaries.

Comparing a maid to a construction laborer or Maestro is not equal either. If the maid works 20 hrs x 40 pesos = 800 pesos. Most maids don't work 40 hours per week. A construction laborer working 45 hours a week makes 1200 pesos which is 26.66 pesos per hour, so that is less. They should be getting IMSS too and all holidays..

Help me out if you will, I’m having some difficulty trying to understand exactly your point.

I believe the idea here is about inequality and comparing “apples to oranges”. Now here is where I go over-the-top in dramatics; if your employees can’t make a living wage in the time of 40 to 45 hours per week this is not much more than slavery to me. Read the Labor Laws, other than minimum wage, to me they seem pretty fair and just but very few employers, IMO, some because of ignorants, some because of greed, don’t follow these guidelines. And what I believe is that laborers can’t afford to affront their employers because they too desperately need their jobs. They may be free but that doesn’t feed hungry mouths.

by northernguy Today at 4:42 pm
…Most maids don't work 40 hours per week…

Are you sure about this or are you just assuming?

IMHO some maids work a full week with multiple clients. Some work a shorter week. Some a the sole earner, some have a husband who works. Impossible to generalize about how many hours a maid works. It''s also impossible to generalize about "employers." Certainly Walmart, Soriana, PEMEX, OXXO, Honda, GM, and countless others follow the law (they're NOT guidelines). If by employers you mean households you may be right but how do you know?

David wrote:IMHO some maids work a full week with multiple clients. Some work a shorter week. Some a the sole earner, some have a husband who works. Impossible to generalize about how many hours a maid works. It''s also impossible to generalize about "employers." Certainly Walmart, Soriana, PEMEX, OXXO, Honda, GM, and countless others follow the law (they're NOT guidelines). If by employers you mean households you may be right but how do you know?

Of course you're right, my bad.

We have had our Housekeeper for 4 years, our pool/gardner for 6 years.
Both have keys to our home......why have em if ya gotta be there to watch em? You could do it yerself. We pay House keeper 440 pesos for 3 to 4 hours per day....M - W- F.....gardner 550 Tues & Thurs. total....he works 10-11 hours per week and maintains pool. He also stays @ our home when we are out of town.

Call us lucky, we have never had a theft incident, and treat them with respect, and we receive same.

Well, I HAVE had a theft incident duly reported to the crime website. The workers themselves may be totally honest but might have a boyfriend who's a thief & who might get hold of the keys. There are plenty of reports around about this kind of theft. And I more than treat any workers I have with respect as well as pay more than many do. YMMV but in my opinion it's better to be safe than sorry. I was lucky, I got my stuff back. Most don't.

Fortunately for us, our rental agency employs the maid and pays her directly otherwise we would definatley use a third party service such as Spring Cleaning to avoid all the legal ramifications and responsibility that come along with employing someone directly. If you are unhappy with the maid they send, you just need to make one phone call to get a different person. It may cost a bit more but well worth it IMO.

I just had Spring Clean here to give me a quote - here is the numbers One maid for four hours of work will cost 300 pesos, two maids for four hours will cost 500 pesos. No other hidden costs, no obligation to pay IMSS, pregnancy, vacation, or termination fees, it is all in the price. Also as Canuckbob mentioned - if you are unhappy it can be resolved with a phone call and no legal problems down the road.

I agree in using a type of cleaning service. Just for curiousity, I had asked my property manager what the termination fee would be for one of my helpers. She contacted her lawyer and much to my surprise, the cost would be 20,800 pesos. I have three that have been with me for 7 years. Severance pay would be 1,462. She also recommended that if I were to ever have problems or concerns about their work ethics I should send her an e-mail explaining the problem no matter how small. Sort of cya. So if I had it to do all over again you bettcha, I would hire a cleaning service.

Be very careful with the 'hired agencies" here - a close friend of mine used a very well know agency here. Always different maids and she was robbed of alot of her jewellery. I will not mention the name of the agency for obvious reasons................be warned.

Ditto.

Our housekeeper in Chapala is paid 50 pesos an hour. She comes in 3 days a week for 5 hours a time. She cooks, cleans, organises, grocery shops, does the windows, laundry and ironing etc. She has her own car (important given we live out in the country). We trust her implicitly and often leave her alone in the house. Have never had a problem with pilferage; and the couple of times she has damaged something, she has been quick to point it out. She is very experienced, knows more about keeping a home clean than I do.....

We had a lawyer draw up a contract for her, and we have her sign extensions for the contract every 6 months. We give her 2 paid vacation days a year, paid holidays if they fall on one of her working days, and the Christmas bonus. We offered to pay her IMSS but she didn't want it (has Seguro Popular) so instead we put $300 USD in a savings account every year for her old age pension.

holdrja wrote:Our housekeeper in Chapala is paid 50 pesos an hour. She comes in 3 days a week for 5 hours a time. She cooks, cleans, organises, grocery shops, does the windows, laundry and ironing etc. She has her own car (important given we live out in the country). We trust her implicitly and often leave her alone in the house. Have never had a problem with pilferage; and the couple of times she has damaged something, she has been quick to point it out. She is very experienced, knows more about keeping a home clean than I do.....

We had a lawyer draw up a contract for her, and we have her sign extensions for the contract every 6 months. We give her 2 paid vacation days a year, paid holidays if they fall on one of her working days, and the Christmas bonus. We offered to pay her IMSS but she didn't want it (has Seguro Popular) so instead we put $300 USD in a savings account every year for her old age pension.

How do you get away for 2 days paid vacation per year? My understanding is they get one week paid after 1st year, and it is progressive. Have you found a new twist to avoid severance pay with 6 month contract? Why would you have her sign a contract every 6 months? Our maid signs for weekly pay, and when we sell our home will settle at closing of sale, for severance. You are not required to provide medical for part time employees. Our housekeeper works for 4 employers. Please explain.