lol Someone sent me an anonymous email saying that I am stupid for offering to pay a house cleaner well. Since your email was temporary, I will reply here: f\I believe in rewarding people who work hard. This may not be your way, but you are not me.

Some people still have too much time... I guess such creatures get robbed if they decide (i doubt if they are that stingy) to let someone clean their house.

Yes indeed. Why not pay someone well if I can?

Don't pay too well. Some domestics in China earn more than some managers. Guilty expat syndrome. It spoils it for not just other expats who are struggling to feed a family, but also other local Chinese families who are trying to pay for some help.

crazy.laowai
"We are willing to pay a very good price"

what do you consider a very good price? double of usual price?

With rewards for good work.
Occasional gifts, and a hong bao for new years, are a good way forward without skewing local pay scales.
Remember to give face and Ayi will become/see herself as Ayi and not just a cog in the machine.

I guess I think different than others. If someone is in a servile position to me, and they do hard but good work, and I can afford to pay them well, then I will. Maybe that idea is too "Western" for Chinese, but it is how I live.

AYI RANT
I don't know where you guys get your ayi's from - but I treat my ayi's well - pay them premium salaries - ayi's now can earn ¥1700 a month - which is when I fired the last one (with a 1 year contract) as she wanted me to increase her salary from ¥1500 to ¥1700 a month less than 1 month after she'd started working or she'd quit (screw the contract). The ayi agency of course refused to refund the agency fee (as I refused to pay ¥1700 a month for anyone NEW they'd pretend to send over - probably stolen from someone else's home, cuz I had a ONE YEAR CONTRACT). I give my ayi's a PAID day off every week, ALL national holidays, and the house just ain't that much work - cooking cleaning. They've ALL been greedy money sucking (long chain of expletives without end)....their work is frk easy - i've done it myself for years - just I'm too busy - and they're extraordinarily crappy at their jobs.

If you give the ayi a grocery budget - she'll consume it all (ostensibly for her home) and you'll get some scraps. This is one way I'd test an ayi - give her a ¥100 a week grocery budget (meats not included - just vegetables) and see what's in the fridge - nada. ¥100 for vegetables will fill most refrigerators for quite some time. They try to tell me they bought "special" blah blah blah...if I could tap all the manure spouted - I'd be the fertilizer king of china.

I've had 100% FAIL on ayis in Kunming. They're lazy, irresponsible, lazy, unsanitary, lazy, and greedy greedy greedy...and did I mention lazy?

I'll NEVER EVER EVER employ another yunnan ayi.

Oh...@CL - things MAY disappear from your home - it probably won't be the result of thieving - but probably more like carelessness - eg chucking your flatware into the trash, then dumping the trash. Wiping stuff off your desk into the trash, then dumping the trash, anything on the floor - swept into the trash, then dumped (really efficient at dumping the trash they are).

To make extra cash - SOME ayis will store garbage on your window sills - plastic bottles, newspapers (scrap paper), empty cardboard boxes, bottles, etc ad infinitum, making your window sill(s) look like trash cans.

My experience reflects those of my local kunming chinese colleagues.

If you hire out of an agency (and pay an agency fee) - every day off the ayi will check into the agency and see if she can find a bump in salary regardless of the employment contract. The ayi agency will also try to steal/recruit your ayi for other clients - to get ANOTHER agency fee - breaching your contract. The tricks and ethics manure goes on ad infinitum - although it's interesting to observe the pervasive business practices here...but thoroughly annoying.

Nice? they don't deserve my spit (or a job as far as I'm concerned). I asked an attorney about the ayi agency contract - he said it's illegal - as it doesn't comply with the formal ayi agency contracts - improperly filled out and other stuff.

So - IF you use an agency - pay the agency fee monthly - NEVER trust a thief. AND most ayi agencies move around or disappear rapidly. Thieves move around as they tend to defecate in their own beds (neighborhoods). I WISH there was an ayi agency complaint line like they have for the taxis...

123.go is hot for this offer

crazy.laowai
"Hello! I would like to hire a Chinese tutor [...] I will pay 100 kwai per hour. Thanks!"

Indeed, you think different than others ! But the problem is that you're also contributing to make trouble for others !

Why do you absolutely want to over pay the people you hire ? Don't you realize that it's creating weird situation for the local market ?

and I hope, you can understand, this has nothing to do with rewarding people for their great work, if they do so. This is skewing the local market, like already mentioned above