House girls’ wages shoot up

By John Kariuki

Mama Sophia earns a net salary of Sh24, 000. She has been living in Nairobi, where she works, with a house girl, for the last seven years.

She has been providing the girl with "all" of her basic needs.Besides, she has extended three hours every day to the househelp to pursue salon training.

The apprenticeship is Sh2,000 a month. The amount is contributed equally between Mama Sophia and the house girl.

She pays her house girl a net of Sh4,000 monthly. Thereafter, she pays her house rent and water and electricity bills, a total of Sh5,100.

Mama Sophia estimates that the cost of food for her family of four takes a cool Sh7,000 every month. After paying some Sh5,000 for her loan and subscription fee to her merry-go-round, she barely scrapes through until the succeeding month ends.

She long gave up on commuting by matatus. Instead, she walks to work, 10 kilometres away.

It is with this hindsight that Mama Sophia has received the new regulations governing the employment of domestic workers with shock.

"This law is bound to make house helps a preserve of a few wealthy households," she says.

If she has to part with Sh7,586 a month for her house girl, her chama dues or food allocation will have to suffer, she says.

"In the absence of a pay hike soon, it means that at least one third of my net salary will be going to my house girl," she says.

But if she factors the new wage and the hidden cost of the all the facilities that her house girl uses, including the course that she is pursuing, this figure easily tops Sh12,000 per month-half of her salary.

The new regulations, from the International Labour Organisation, have set the minimum monthly salary for house helps at Sh7,586 in major towns.

Punitive option

Further, the regulations stipulate a compulsory weekly off duty time of 48 hours or compensation in lieu of it and overtime compensation besides stringent penalties for non-compliance with the regulations.

Failure to grant the break leaves the employer with the punitive option of paying the house help at the rate of Sh365 a day or an additional Sh3,000 a month.

That, together with the basic salary of Sh7,586 means that domestic workers who do not get two days off a week will earn not less than Sh10,000 a month.

This is equivalent to the take home pay of many low-cadre workers in Government and private sector.

Priscah Nyota, a Nairobi based lawyer, says that the new rule is likely to shake-up the labour market.

"More househelps will certainly be fired when it becomes impossible to sustain them at the proposed costs," she says.

Bureaus that supply domestic workers to households and institutions are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries, as the recruitment in the sector gets more professional, she adds.

And as normally happens in these bureaus, their operators will be taking a bigger chunk in the usual percentage of the proposed house girls’ fees that they demand upfront from prospective employers, says Nyota.

According to Nyota, many working women will bear the brunt of these new regulations.

"The enforcement of these rules will reduce the number of mothers in active employment especially those who cannot afford the higher wages," she says.

And with the current inflation, cutting on one’s budget to raise the extra money needed to attain a salary of Sh7,586 will not be an easy task, she adds.

Statutory charges

Nyota foresees many women opting to take care of their children until they attain school going age. "Taking children to day care centers and contracting casuals to do the laundry and housekeeping may be cheaper in the long run," she says.

Besides, this will save one the statutory charges of overtime and leave compensation as well as the hidden cost of food and accommodation for a resident house help.

Connie Akinyi, a civil servant, says that the new wage rule is not radical in any way.

"Why shouldn’t I pay my house girl enough money when she literally runs my home in my absence," she says.

She decries the present state where some people trivialise the role of their house girls and pay them peanuts.

This, she says, is ignoring the fact that immense family riches can be made when spouses are helped with their domestic chores.

Akinyi, who earns a net salary of Sh35,000 and pays her current house girls Sh6,500, has no qualms adjusting this wage to the new figure. She agrees with the recommended off time or penalties in lieu of it.

"I normally give my house girl a Sunday off and it will not be a big problem to create another extra day", she says.

Akinyi advises other women to give their house girls the prerogative of using their free time the way they see it fit so long as they don’t go overboard.

Formal employers can cushion the effects of this new law by giving their employees a specific house girl’s allowance, as some international agencies do.

Alternatively, they can install a day care facility at the workplace where women with babies can leave them at a fee deducted from their salaries.