I have heard of a couple of rules in TW regarding employing maids, including:
“you officially need to have an old or disabled person living in your household, in order to be allowed to employ a maid”.
Does this rule also apply to foreigners?
If not, can I assume that is does not matter what nationality the maid is?
If so, is there any way around this?
[quote=“Trapper”]I have heard of a couple of rules in TW regarding employing maids, including:
“you officially need to have an old or disabled person living in your household, in order to be allowed to employ a maid”.
Does this rule also apply to foreigners?
If not, can I assume that is does not matter what nationality the maid is?
If so, is there any way around this?[/quote]
Traper, reasons for employing a maid are essentially done on a points basis, hence why you are being told you need an old or disabled person living in the house, new born babies can also work in your favour as well.
As it appears you are a foreignor, then there is one way round this for foreignors only i think, and that you have to be earning NT$ 3,000,000 or more per year. They will require proof of this in the form of employment contracts, salary slips and tax returns, it will also cost you more in terms of government fees.
A local employing a maid for looking after an elderly relative might pay as little as NT$ 1500 in monthly fees to the government, whilst a foreignor utlising the above rule, will pay NT$ 10,000 per month in government fees. The attitude is simply, if you are earning that much money, you can pay the fees.
As far as i remember, currently only three nationalities are accepted for the postion of domestic helper, Philippino, Indonesian and Vietnamese, but this can change at any time.
Or of course you can simply hire a Taiwanese person without any of the bureaucratic hoop-jumping. Or a foreign woman married to a local.
I have an 8 month baby - is this considered ‘non-new born’?
Sandman - so if we employ a Philio, or Thai, or Vietnamese maid, then all of the above needs to be considered? But, if we hire a Taiwanese maid, then all is OK and fine, and then are no rules?
Thanks.
As far as I understand it.
[quote=“Trapper”]I have an 8 month baby - is this considered ‘non-new born’?
Sandman - so if we employ a Philio, or Thai, or Vietnamese maid, then all of the above needs to be considered? But, if we hire a Taiwanese maid, then all is OK and fine, and then are no rules?
Thanks.[/quote]
Trapper, i know the question was aimed at Sandman, but will answer also.
If you hire Taiwanese then correct, all of this goes out of the window, as these are the requirements to obtain permission to employ an overseas worker as a domestic helper. In fact, one exercise that must be done is to advertise and interview potential local applicants for the position, and only if nothing suitable is found can you move towards the next step when applying for overseas.
Biggest difference will be hours, cost and value for money.
thanks Traveller - really appreciate your input on this.
Are you able to clarify more on your last comment - “Biggest difference will be hours, cost and value for money”?
Have assumed they will cost more, but please do clarify more about hours (less, less flexible?) and value for money (do not do all types of work?)
Trapper
With most, though not all, overseas domestic helpers are expected to work 6 days a week with one day off, some even agree to work 7 days a week. The cost of 6 days a week on a monthly basis is a minimum of NT$ 15,840, ie minimum wage as agreed between the countries concerned. This is also approx - leaving aside exchange rate fluctuations - what they earn in HK and Singapore. If they work the extra day then the cost rises by NT$ 528 for each extra day worked.
Depending on the role of the domestic helper then most will also help around the house, in terms of cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing etc, something almost without fail that a local nanny will not do.
Total cost per month for overseas assuming no overtime and employed based on salary is just under NT$ 27,000 per month. On top they are entitled to 7 days paid leave per year, most take it as extra cash at the end of the contract. Annual cost under NT$ 330,000 per year.
When we did the calculations some 5 years ago, the cost of the local nanny per month was about NT$ 20,000, but this was for shorther hours, from memory i think 8am until 7pm and only 5 days a week, and we were expected to take the child to their house/property. In addition, there was bonuses that had to be paid during the year for Dragon boat, CNY etc. Total cost without overtime, which for us would have been a bit was NT$ 280,000.
For us, the difference of NT$ 50,000 would easily have been eaten away with overtime and weekend working, so we went the maid route, but it takes a while to get everything sorted first time round, in total about 3 to 4 months, and that assumes the maid you choose has not problems with visas etc. The other factor for us, was that she would be live in, so no need for the child to be taken away from its own environment.
Traveller: Can’t you get a Taiwanese to come to your house everyday? It looks like the only option for ppl if they do not want to take their child to someone elses house is to go the foreign maid route. I don’t think that is the case though at all.
I don’t have a nanny but I do have a part time Taiwanese maid. We got her through an agency and she comes once a week for half a day. We tried several before we settled on this one and none of them could iron for toffee but the cleaning is first rate. Cost is probably a little high at 1500 per week but no paperwork or forms or government permissions required.
In addition to the yearly salary requirement I seem to remember a requirement for specific job titles as well - Senior Engineer wouldn’t cut it but Vice President would. One thing to watch out for is the phone calls that come after you have made your inquiries - we received a number of offers from companies offering foreign maids at lower prices that promised to find ways to ‘side step’ all the government rules. Avoid them.
We went first with a nanny from the Ukraine who was here on a visa and now a local nanny takes care of both our children. It seem a tad expensive at 15k ++ per child. It’s worth it to hire locally if only to experience the joy of your children speaking Mandarin. Something made far easier if your Nanny doesn’t speak English.
Josh, yes you could, but most seem unwilling to do so, plus you would not get any of the side benefits such as cleaning etc done, as we have found in the past, that is outside of their work remit.
[quote=“kelake”]In addition to the yearly salary requirement I seem to remember a requirement for specific job titles as well - Senior Engineer wouldn’t cut it but Vice President would. One thing to watch out for is the phone calls that come after you have made your inquiries - we received a number of offers from companies offering foreign maids at lower prices that promised to find ways to ‘side step’ all the government rules. Avoid them.
We went first with a nanny from the Ukraine who was here on a visa and now a local nanny takes care of both our children. It seem a tad expensive at 15k ++ per child. It’s worth it to hire locally if only to experience the joy of your children speaking Mandarin. Something made far easier if your Nanny doesn’t speak English.[/quote]
Kelake, there was no such requirement when we first applied or during the second extension after the first three year period, not sure where you got that one from.
i assume half a day is 4 to 6 hours right?
300NT/hour is pricey??? 
Ah yes, I never said it was cheap. I know she comes at 8a.m. and think she leaves at 12…but who knows? I let her in but she lets herself out.