Best Posts in Thread: How much do you pay your full time helper?

I have had to watch Family members/friends here die from Leukemia (early 20's lady) Liver Failure (toddler) Stroke and Heart Attack (young and elderly) Dengue (child) Childbirth (young Mother and child) etc... After a while you seem to become hardened to it, but it does still affect you somewhat.

One was an 18 month old Baby. When I noticed his yellow eyes and skin I told the mother to take him straight to a Doctor. She said she had already done that, and that the Dr said it was normal. NOT to me! I insisted! Several months later, the baby became ill, and so she took him back to the Medical Centre, who referred her to a Specialist. Liver failure... He died a few months later. We gave money to help but could not afford the life saving operation nor the ongoing medication needed after a Liver replacement...

We gave money to try and help the young woman receive pain medication. We are not flash with cash, so it was too little too late. It is hard. What can you do? Bleed yourself dry?

In all honesty; if I were to fall seriously ill, I could neither afford treatment nor would I expect anyone to help, so I accept if I do fall seriously ill, then come what may. It is what it is here, we cannot live forever nor can we help everyone who does fall ill... This is life here in the Philippines, something that we all need to accept for what it is.

 

I knew a 71 year old American with a wife of 5 years and a couple of kids, living in Liloan on a minimal budget. When the wife or kids were sick he would take them to Cebu North Gen Hospital in Talamban and get them the best treatment he could afford. When he got sick he was too cheap to go there. He went to the poorest, provincial hospital in the area - and died there. Point is, take care of yourself first so you are around longer to take care of your loved ones.

 

When I used to hire helpers, I found a problem with that. A foreigner will often hire a full time "helper" (singular) and expect quite a bit from them. I used to do the same.

Eventually, I rented a larger place and when the need arose I had a nanny for the child and helping with the household chores (like cooking and doing dishes). She was paid 4,000 a month and considered to be the lead hand. I had a maid who was paid 3,000 a month and was responsible for all cleaning and sweeping the leaves (I hated that part but SWMBO said it was important). I had a gardener for weeding, cutting grass, planting flowers etc who was only paid 2,000 a month. On occasion, there were casual employees to repair the fences, fix the car, collect the coconuts and make copra.

With this arrangement, the only one who was constantly in need of replacement was the maid. So many reasons for the maids leaving but the one common denominator is that the Filipinas really do not like being maids. Over the years I had at least half a dozen maids, none of whom lasted more than 6 months. I paid them as little as 2,000 a month (10 years ago) to as high as 3,500) 5 years ago. At that point I said "feck it", moved to a smaller house, and never hired another maid.

 

This is a major problem here - with family primarily and also with employees if that is given as a benefit or if the employer is just a good person. The big dilemma is when do you withdraw funding? I know an ex-pat who spent over P2million on a heart condition - he funded it with his own resources and some help from friends but what if that condition was suffered by a family member or an employee or someone we really like, especially if a Filipino with no resources. Hope I never have to face that point.

 

We paid her Phil Health, additionally, she got quite ill and we asked if she had been exposed to TB. She that she had been exposed back home, so we had blood tests and doctor visits related to that. She did receive TB medication and recovered. So, we had quite a few, more costly expenses related to her medical needs.

 

Most times she ate our food, which was ok with us. We also bought all of her toiletry items and whatever she needed.