Hiring a Maid in the Philippines: What a Kasambahay Costs, What the Law Says and How to Find a Good One

By Maria the Filipina · Updated 7 October 2026 · 10 min read

The short answer

A full-time maid in Metro Manila costs at least ₱7,800 a month, about $126. Most other regions sit between ₱6,500 and ₱7,500. Under the Kasambahay Law you also owe a written contract, a weekly day off, a 13th month pay and your share of SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG. In Manila that adds up to about ₱9,700 a month before food.

How much is a maid in the Philippines in 2026?

The legal minimum for a full-time maid in Metro Manila is ₱7,800 a month, about $126. In most other regions it is between ₱6,500 and ₱7,500, roughly $105 to $121. Many families pay more than the minimum to keep a good helper.

In Filipino we call a household helper a kasambahay, which means "housemate." Each region's wage board sets her minimum pay, and the rates move often. Here are the current rates in the places where many retirees settle, converted at about 62 pesos to the dollar:

Region (popular areas)	Monthly minimum	About in dollars
Metro Manila	₱7,800 (since February 7, 2026)	$126
Central Visayas (Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete)	₱7,000, rising to ₱7,500 on October 14, 2026	$113 to $121
MIMAROPA (Palawan, Mindoro)	₱7,000	$113
CALABARZON (Tagaytay, Batangas, Laguna)	₱6,750	$109
Ilocos Region (La Union, Vigan)	₱6,700	$108
Cordillera (Baguio)	₱6,600	$106
Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao	₱6,500	$105

The minimum is only the floor. At a January 2026 hearing, the Metro Manila wage board heard that the average kasambahay there already earned about ₱9,000 a month. In the provinces, foreigners who pay a little above the local rate tend to get their pick of good helpers.

Paying far above the going rate can backfire, though. A friend's neighbor in Cebu felt guilty and started his new helper at double the local pay. Within a few months she had saved more than she had ever held, went home for a fiesta and never came back. A fair starting rate with a small raise every six months keeps a good helper much longer.

Check the latest order with the National Wages and Productivity Commission or the DOLE office in your region before you name a number.

What does a full-time helper really cost each month?

Her salary is only part of the cost. You also pay your share of her SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, plus a 13th month of pay and her meals. At the Manila minimum, wage plus contributions plus the 13th month come to about ₱9,700 a month before food.

Here is the math for one full-time helper at the Metro Manila minimum:

Item	Per month
Wage	₱7,800
Your share of SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG	about ₱1,216
13th month pay, spread over the year	₱650
Total before food and her room	about ₱9,666 (about $156)

At a ₱6,500 provincial minimum, the same total is about ₱8,100 a month, or roughly $130.

A live-in helper also eats with your household. The law says you must give her at least three adequate meals a day and a decent place to sleep. You cannot deduct either from her wage. Add her share of rice and groceries, her toiletries and the electric fan or aircon in her room.

Even with all of that, the number usually surprises Americans in a good way. A weekly cleaning service back home often costs more in a month than a full-time helper here costs with everything added. That gap is exactly why it pays to treat her fairly. To you the salary is small. To her family it may be the main income.

What does the Kasambahay Law require from employers?

The Batas Kasambahay (Republic Act 10361) gives every regular household helper a written contract and a minimum wage. She also gets a weekly day off, a 13th month pay and government benefits. The law applies to foreign employers just as it does to Filipinos, with fines of ₱10,000 to ₱40,000 for violations.

The law was signed in January 2013. Here are its main duties for you as the employer:

A written contract before she starts, in a language she understands. It covers her duties, pay, hours and days off.
Registration in your barangay's registry of domestic workers. The barangay is your village or neighborhood office.
Rest: at least eight hours of rest a day and 24 hours in a row off every week. Most helpers choose Sunday for church and family.
Pay: in cash and directly to her at least once a month, with only legal deductions. A 13th month pay comes on top and is due by December 24.
Leave: five days of paid service incentive leave after one year.
Room, meals and medical help when she is sick or injured. Her privacy and her right to use her phone in her free time are protected too.
Costs before hiring: you pay for her medical certificate and her barangay, police and NBI clearances. No agency may charge her a placement fee.

The minimum age is 15, with extra protections for anyone under 18. My honest advice is simple. Hire adults.

Very few households follow all of this. In 2023, a DOLE official said only about 35,000 of 1.4 million household helpers had a written contract. Doing it properly makes you stand out, and helpers notice.

What do you pay for SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG?

For a helper earning the Metro Manila minimum of ₱7,800, your employer share is about ₱1,216 a month and hers is about ₱806, taken from her pay. If she earns ₱5,000 or less, the law says you pay the whole contribution yourself. You must register her within 30 days of hiring.

SSS uses one unified registration form for household employers. You get a household employer number from the Social Security System, report her SSS number and remit the contributions on schedule. Here is how the ₱7,800 example splits:

Agency	Your share	Her share
SSS (15% of an ₱8,000 salary credit, plus ₱10 for employee compensation)	₱810	₱400
PhilHealth (5%, with a ₱10,000 income floor)	₱250	₱250
Pag-IBIG (2% each)	₱156	₱156
Total	₱1,216	₱806

These benefits matter to her more than most foreigners realize. SSS gives her a pension one day and help if she gets sick or pregnant. PhilHealth helps with hospital bills. Pag-IBIG is a housing savings fund that may one day help her build a small house in her province.

If you skip the payments, she can still claim SSS benefits, and you become liable for what you should have paid. As a foreigner on a visa, that is not a fight worth having over about $20 a month.

Live-in helper, live-out helper or a weekly cleaner?

A live-in helper stays in your home and handles the daily cooking, cleaning and laundry. A live-out helper comes each day and goes home at night. A weekly cleaner or a laundry shop suits a retiree in a small condo who mostly needs the floors, bathroom and clothes done.

Each choice fits a different life:

Live-in: the most help and the most company. You also share your home with another person, so her room must really be hers.
Live-out: more privacy for both of you. She keeps her own family life, which many helpers prefer.
Casual help: a cleaner every week or two and a wash-and-fold laundry shop down the street. It is simple and cheap for one person.

The Kasambahay Law covers helpers who work for you regularly, whether live-in or live-out. Someone who helps only now and then is generally outside it. Agree on a fair day rate, pay on the spot and give her lunch or merienda, our afternoon snack.

Think about the future too. For a man in his sixties living alone, a steady helper is also a safety net. She is the one who notices when you don't come out of your room by nine. In a Philippine hospital every patient is expected to have a bantay, a watcher who stays by the bed, buys the medicines and talks to the nurses. More than one foreign retiree has found that his helper became that person.

If you live with a Filipina partner, let her lead this decision. The house is her domain too, and she will know what kind of help her household needs. If you are still looking for that partner, my guide on finding a Filipina partner after 50 is a better place to start than the kitchen.

How do you find a good maid in the Philippines?

The safest way is a personal referral from someone with a good name in your area. That could be a neighbor, your building staff, a parish friend or another family's long-time helper. A licensed agency is the next option, and its fee is yours to pay and never hers.

Helpers talk to each other on their day off and in line at the sari-sari store, the little corner shop. Within weeks every helper nearby knows whether you pay on time and give a real day off. So she is interviewing you as much as you are interviewing her. A decent employer soon has good helpers asking about him.

A few habits make hiring smoother:

Pay her fare to come to the interview. Many applicants cannot easily afford the jeepney fare.
Call her former employer if she has one, and ask why she left.
Ask for a phone call rather than a text, so you can hear how well you understand each other.
Start with a short trial period, written into the contract.
Pay for her NBI and barangay clearances, as the law requires, and look at them.

If you use an agency, ask to see its DOLE license and a written breakdown of fees. Good agencies offer a replacement if the first helper leaves early.

One place I would not look is inside your partner's family. Hiring her cousin feels kind until the day it doesn't work out. Then letting her go becomes a family matter, and you know whose side your partner will take. My guide on Filipino family and money explains why those lines blur so easily.

How do you build trust with your kasambahay?

Trust grows from small, steady things like paying on time, sharing the same food and knocking before you open her door. Her day off is truly hers. Most of all, her "yes sir" does not always mean yes, so check gently that she really understood.

In our culture it is very hard to say no to the person who pays you. We call that feeling hiya, a mix of shame and not wanting to embarrass anyone. A helper my cousin knows was afraid to touch her employer's new washing machine. It had too many buttons and she could never pay for it if it broke, so she washed everything by hand for weeks and said nothing.

So instead of asking "Do you understand?", ask her to show you. Let her run the machine once while you watch. Tell her out loud that a broken glass is not the end of the world. If you explode over the first one, she will hide the second.

A few more things keep a good helper for years:

Agree on the exact hour she returns from her day off.
Keep your passport, cash and prescription medicines locked away, out of temptation's reach.
Say once, kindly, that what happens in the house stays in the house. Then assume the neighbors will hear anyway. Chismis, our word for gossip, travels fast.
Never shout. Raising your voice is deeply shameful here, a point I cover in things foreigners do that Filipinas hate.

Treat her as a person who lives in your house, not a machine that runs it. Respect comes back to you.

How do you end the job properly?

If her contract has no fixed end date, either of you can end it with five days' notice. If you dismiss her without a just cause, you owe her the pay she has earned plus 15 days' pay. Give her the final pay and an employment certificate, calmly and in writing.

The law lists the just causes that let you dismiss a helper. They include serious misconduct, gross neglect, fraud and a crime against you or your household. She can also leave without notice if she is abused or treated inhumanely. If she leaves without a good reason, she forfeits up to 15 days of unpaid wages.

A clean ending looks like this:

Tell her privately and kindly, with a Filipino friend or your partner present.
Pay everything she has earned, including her share of the 13th month for the months she worked.
Give her the employment certificate within five days of her request, as the law requires.
Keep copies of the contract, the payslips and her signed receipt for the final pay.

Many helpers go home for Christmas and simply don't come back. It is not personal. Often a family need or a new job back home pulled her away, and hiya made a goodbye too hard. If you have paid her fairly and kept your records, you can wish her well, mean it and start looking for the next one. The good word she spreads about you will make that search easier.

Prefer to watch?Maria talks about love, family and life in the Philippines on YouTube.

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Questions men ask me

Can a foreigner legally hire a maid in the Philippines?

Yes, you can. The Kasambahay Law defines the employer as anyone who hires and directs a household helper, with no citizenship rule. You register as a household employer with SSS like any Filipino family. Your helper needs no immigration papers because she is Filipino. Your own visa status does not change.

How many hours can a kasambahay work in a day?

The law does not set a maximum number of working hours. Instead it guarantees her at least eight hours of rest in total each day and 24 hours in a row off every week. In practice, a fair live-in schedule leaves her evenings and her day off truly free.

Can I deduct food, lodging or a broken item from her pay?

No, you cannot. Meals and lodging are your duty under the law and cannot come out of her wage. You also cannot ask for a deposit against loss or damage. The only allowed deductions are legal ones, such as her own share of SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG.

When do I pay my maid's 13th month pay?

It is due by December 24 each year. It equals one twelfth of the basic pay she earned during the year, so a full year at ₱7,800 a month means a 13th month of ₱7,800. If she leaves mid-year, pay her share for the months she worked.

How much notice do I give if I let my helper go?

Five days is the rule when her contract has no fixed end date. If you dismiss her without a just cause, you owe her earned pay plus 15 days' pay. Give her final pay and an employment certificate within five days of her request, and keep signed copies of everything.

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Stories in this guide are illustrative examples based on common experiences. Names and details are changed. This guide is educational and is not legal, financial or immigration advice. Rules change, so check with the official source.