We have a family friend who has helped us with occasional tutoring. We’d paid 500nt/hour. She was a college student at the time. I feel like this was fair at the time.
Now we’re likely going to ask her to help with childcare for one of our kids who may need to homeschool for a mix of reasons for a couple of months (health/school). The friend is also done with school and an internship and has six months before she starts a new program, so it seems like a good time to ask her. We may also use her over the summer, so I am thinking this could be 4-5 months.
I am thinking of something like 20 hours/week (5 blocks of 4 hours). We’d had a baomu/nanny for a year about a decade ago and I think we paid 40,000nt/month. I am trying to figure out what is fair. If we paid hourly it would likely be something like 80 hours x 500 = 40,000/month. If we paid half-time nanny wage it would be more like 20,000/month. What do you all think is fair/reasonable? I remember the “new college grad” wage seems to be around 25,000/month so I am trying to figure out how to do this, but I also don’t want to be exploitative. Grateful for any thoughts…
Minimum wage in Taiwan is NT$25,250 per month and employers would also pay insurance, NHI and pension contributions. If you don’t intend to provide insurance, NHI and pension contributions then you should at least provide an incentive for her to forgo those plus as a college student/graduate she should be receiving well in excess of minimum wage and also in excess of what a baomu receives given what she is being expected to do. 50K or so would be relatively fair.
For 50K for 20 hours/week of work a lot of Taiwanese full time workers would quit their current job.
I am not saying that is not a fair pay. Just not a reality in Taiwan.
35k if you are giving her accommodation and food, 45k if you aren’t. Any less than that is a slap in the face to be honest. Looking after kids, especially teaching them is hard, and if you are only going to pay minimum wage she’d probably prefer to go work somewhere where she has less responsibilities and more flexible working hours.
It’s only 4 hours a day. Can’t get much more flexible than that.
The wages quoted here are not in line with the reality in Taiwan. My friend started a new side business that has just started and is basically breaking even at this point. The girl that works for him gets 28K and free room and board without labor or health. She works 12 to 9, sometimes 11 and is super happy.
Overworked at minimum wage with no labor insurance, health insurance and presumably no pension contribution, so she’ll be fucked when she retires too if she stays there too long. Maybe she’s lying to your friend about being “super happy”
No, she’s one of my wife’s best friends, so I know she’s being honest. The job is super easy and she can do her own side businesses at the same time. It’s just gravy to her.
Thank you all for the comments. This is helpful to think through. New graduates seem to be getting 30,000 + benefits (I think?). I agree with those who think Taiwanese are generally exploited and overworked, and also with those are recommending splitting the difference somewhere between 20 and 40,000.
She lives relatively close and doesn’t seem to be job hunting for the window she has before the next degree. She’s been a good influence on my kids. I’m looking for a win-win situation, and she’d just be caring for one very easy-going tween 1/2 time, often while one of us was working from home.
I’d also be interested in what people have paid. A challenge for parents sometimes expressed on these boards is that Taiwan doesn’t really have a babysitter tradition. It’s either tutoring, institutional care, or relatives helping out. We’re trying to figure out how to stay sustainable and get through the summer.
In this case, the kid’s at a school with ~8 weeks left and I think they can “finish” out the year, so I’m hoping the friend could do a mix of schoolwork and healthful activities (read together, etc., but not just watch tv). Honestly, mostly it’s that we’ll need some break to do our own work. We wouldn’t be expecting any generation of content or prep. The goal would basically be to turn in enough work to satisfy the school, and even on that we’re flexible. This happened kind of quickly, so honestly we’re still kind of thinking through what type of help we’d need/want and how much we can afford/should pay.
This is kind of obvious and goes without saying…
Offer her what you can afford and what you feel is fair. Ask her what she feels is fair. What matters most is how the two of you feel, not us.
We paid our nanny 25K for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. That was to take care of a toddler, which is way more labor intensive than a tween.
It is the going official government rate too, I believe.