Overview of Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) in Singapore
As of November 2017, it is reported that there are about 243,000 Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) or as we commonly call them maids or sometimes domestic helpers too. Roughly 1 in 3 households rely on FDWs to get their house in order such as taking care of newborns, taking care of infants, taking care of children, taking care of the elderly, taking care of the disabled, and even for housework and cooking… most households have a few combinations of the above but you get my point. A full-time maid basically wears many hats, but there are some households whose houses are so big that their main duty for their maids is just housework and cooking.
For some families, that’s because their children are much older or children are studying overseas, hence the FDW isn’t required to babysit or take care of children but simply to focus on the housework and cooking. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy job just because the duty is only two. Surely expectations are going to be higher as the FDW will have less need to focus on many duties.
To be good at housework and cooking, it needs one to have a lot of passion and patience. It’s hard to inculcate or train passion and patience into an FDW, so luck is required too. There is no way to know if the FDW is good in housework and cooking and oftentimes, would-be employers will seek the maid agency’s advice and even seek references from the FDW’s previous employers to make an informed decision on whether to hire that FDW or not.
Cooking, if it isn’t up to your standard, may require you to send your FDW for cooking classes. There are many classes out there that cater specifically to FDWs and conveniently take place on Sundays, which is the FDW’s day off.
Currently in Singapore, there are more Indonesian Domestic Helpers versus Filipino. Back in the 1990s, there were more Filipino Domestic Helpers but as time goes by, Indonesian Domestic Helpers became a more popular choice because of a few reasons. Such as their salary is usually lower than the Filipino Domestic Helper and since the majority of Singaporeans love spicy food, it surely doesn’t hurt to have an Indonesian Domestic Helper whip up some delicious spicy Indonesian food, right? Sometimes, the Malay Bahasa language is preferred as the employer’s elderly parents could only speak Malay Bahasa. As of recent times, Myanmese Domestic Helpers are increasingly becoming popular too, mainly because of their salary being the lowest when compared to Indonesian and Filipino Domestic Helpers.
Whatever the choice may be, at the end of the day, choosing the right maid is all about luck, and both maid and employer must do their part to ensure a long-lasting working relationship. It definitely helps when an employer is able to put himself/herself into the helper’s shoes and understand that running the household isn’t easy and just like everyone who wants a break from work, the helper also wants a break. So it’s actually good news that the Ministry of Manpower stepped in to mandate that all Maids in Singapore must have mandatory weekly days off or be compensated if required to work on her day off, and the maid must be willing to work too.
The alternative to hiring a full-time maid will be to hire a part-time local maid or as we usually call them part-time cleaners. Part-time cleaners must be a Singaporean or a Singapore PR. Please do not hire an FDW or any illegal part-time cleaner as you will pay a huge fine if caught. These days, there are many websites/platforms to quickly search online for a part-time cleaner. You simply have to choose a date and time and make your payment online to confirm a part-time cleaner. If you have booked movie tickets online before, then hiring a part-time cleaner should be a breeze for you.
There are definitely pros and cons to hiring a part-time cleaner or a full-time maid. Evidently, it’s getting more popular to simply hire a full-time maid as with each year, the number of households hiring full-time maids keeps increasing. More maids will be even required to take care of the aging population in Singapore as there are very scarce options for taking care of the elderly in Singapore as most nursing homes are always booked and Singaporeans need to work as the standard of living in Singapore is very high. Hence, hiring a full-time maid is the preferred choice. Of course, if the budget allows, you can even hire a private nurse on a part-time or full-time basis but it will be very costly. A good website to hire qualified local private nurses/caregivers is from www.homage.sg.
Speak to us now!
So if the final decision is to hire a full-time maid, look no further… Choosing us is the right choice as we have more than 30 years of experience in this industry and we will definitely do our best to match the right helper to your family. Do contact us at 6735 3456 or WhatsApp us at 8836 3456 for a free consultation. Alternatively, you can also use the Online Chat, which is represented by the Red Speech Bubble located at the bottom right of our website, to get in touch with us with the maid profiles you are interested in, and then we will proceed to arrange either a face-to-face interview or phone interview with them.
