Jakarta - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
Extremely affordable and there are always household helpers with experience working with the Embassy community looking for work. We employ a part-time helper (2 full days per week) for about $140 per month to do laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, a bit of cooking, and other small errands. I know other expats employ staff from nannies to gardeners to personal drivers. - Dec 2023
Very affordable for expats; salaries for housekeepers is around 5-6 million rupiah ~$335-400/month. - May 2023
Most people have a maid that may or may not cook. Hired staff generally have a specialty; nanny, maid, cook, driver or gardener. Few do more than one thing. Occasionally you can find maid that will help with cooking but that is uncommon. $350-400 a month. Drivers can be more and most gardeners are part-time. - Oct 2021
Account for 400-500 USD month. The cost of a driver, cleaning person, gardener, nanny would be in that ballpark or slightly more. You have to pay severance. Many expats will pay household help the prevailing minimum wage. Many locals do not, so household staff are eager to make the jump to working for expats. - Sep 2020
Widely available and very inexpensive. Maids, cooks, nannies, and drivers are the most common. Minimum salary is currently 3.600.000 IDR per month, or about $270 USD. However, most expats pay above that amount, especially if the help have good experience and English skills. In addition to base salary, domestic help get a 13th month bonus for Ramadan, a 14th month bonus for health insurance, and a 15th month bonus per year worked upon separation. - Feb 2018
Cheap. Seems to be widely available. - Jun 2015
Very cheap if you get someone without English- less than US$200 a month. If they speak English anywhere from US$200-$350 a month for full time. - Jan 2015
You need good domestic help to navigate the chaos of Jakarta. Increasingly I noticed that quality help was asking for a minimum of IDR 3 million monthly. Overtime is expected to be paid and has different rates for holidays and Sundays compared to weekdays. Jakarta has quite a high cost of living. I would advise paying the driver a lump sum that includes over time. With my first driver, I noticed he often stayed stuck in traffic, rather than trying to take small roads to avoid the traffic. I believe he did this to increase his over time pay! - Jan 2013
We have a wonderful housekeeper who was easy for us to acquire. We are a couple with no kids, she works M-F 9-5, and we pay her about US $200/month --- which is fairly average, if a bit high. - Jun 2012
Good and cheap: $100-200/mo to include some English ability. If you have a car you must have a driver. - Jan 2012
Inexpensive. People had full-time maid/cooks for $150-$200/month plus annual bonus. Nannies typically received a little more than maids. Many people shared maids if they did not need someone full-time. The CLO annually surveyed the embassy community and published a report on household help salaries. When people left post, they usually tried to place their household help in the homes of incoming staff, so it was rather easy to find help. Also, the embassy held seminars on safe food handling for people's household staff a couple of times a year. - Jul 2011
Help is plentiful but not as cheap as in other parts of South East Asia. I have a maid who comes six days a week and cooks about 50% of the dinners, she earns about $200 per month, the driver works five days and earns the same and the gardener/guard works six days, twelve hours a day and earns may $160. - Jul 2011
Domestic help is readily available and cheap. - Dec 2010
Readily available and cheap but keep an eye on your personal belongings! - Nov 2010
Plentiful, reliable, and costing around $100/month for a live-out maid. - Jul 2010
