The average salary of domestic workers fell by 20 to 30 per cent after the Covid-19 pandemic, and now stands between 4,000 and 5,000 patacas a month.
That’s according to figures released to local media by the Association of Employment Agencies for Foreign Workers and cited in a report by TDM.
Responding to the figures, Nedie Taberdo Palcon of the Migrant Workers Union of the Philippines said that besides the decline in wages, “the housing allowance hasn’t been increased above 500 patacas [per month] for a long time. Everything is more expensive now, including rent.”
She told TDM that “The current situation for migrant workers is very difficult” and echoed calls for domestic workers to be covered by minimum wage legislation.
The government must “consider including domestic workers in the minimum wage because they’ve never listened to us, never increased salaries or given domestic workers the minimum wage,” Palcon said.
Macao’s failure to extend minimum wage protections to domestic workers has been the subject of international condemnation.
