Best Posts in Thread: Live in Yaya

Let them know before you hire them that there will be no salary advances.

Give them a small test early on to see if they are honest. For example, put 200 pesos in your pants pocket and see if it's still there after they do the laundry. Or, have a jar of coins on top of the refrigerator counted to the exact peso, see if some of it goes missing.

 

No direct experience myself with a live in helper/yaya/gardener/driver whatever. However, from what I hear (and seems plausible to me) when there's someone living with you long term, they become close to your family, and evidently the way you treat them evolves accordingly.
So, while at the start you may restrict financial involvement to paying a reasonable salary and making sure they're enrolled in Philhealth and SSS (which is also your legal obligation), if they stay with you long term you may very well end up looking after them as much as they look after you/your kids/garden whatever. In other words, when they need to see a dentist/doctor you may well end up being the one paying for that.
There's also plenty examples where the helper has a child that lives with you also and take responsibility for (school expenses etc.).