Jerusalem - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
We do not avail ourselves of these services, but they do exist. - Sep 2024
We paid our household help NIS 60 an hour plus NIS 20 for transport. Two employees were native Spanish speakers and one was a native English speaker. - Nov 2022
Expensive, especially for full-time. We have a twice a week housecleaner through a service who comes for 4-5 hours and we pay him about US $60 per visit. - Oct 2019
VERY expensive and difficult to find. Bring your nanny with you if you have a good one! We work Monday-Friday, the rest of the country works Sunday - Thursday so people have a hard time finding childcare on Friday and Saturday. Some people have Filipina nannies. It's difficult to hire Palestinians because they have difficulty crossing the checkpoint from the West Bank to work in Jerusalem. But some people do have part-time house cleaners and part and full-time nannies. Babysitters are about $15 per hour. - Aug 2018
No one has full time cleaning people or other help (other than nannies). A cleaning person once a week costs 50 shekels an hour for about four hours. It is very hard to find a full time nanny; some people brought their former nannies as live-ins. Even babysitters are hard to find, and the going rate is 40-50 shekels an hour, plus money for transportation. It makes it kind of hard because the work week is not the same as hours, so you have to scramble to find after school care, especially on Friday afternoons. - Apr 2018
No real household help pool here at all. It is difficult to find someone to clean, even once a week. Israeli labor laws are fairly strict. Nannies/sitters are like gold here. It is hardly worth it for EFMs to work when their entire salary goes to cover childcare costs. - Dec 2016
Between US$10 to 20 an hour. People sometimes bring domestic help from third countries. - Aug 2013
Some Palestinians provide cleaning or childcare services, but you generally must be able to speak Arabic to communicate with them. Foreign domestic workers cost more but are widely available. The minimum monthly wage is around US$1,000/month, but it is difficult to obtain visas, unless you are a diplomat. Most domestic workers care for elderly Israelis, and they generally may not stay for more than five years. - Jul 2013
Yes, most of them are from the Philipines. They are good. You have to sponsor them and is really expensive, about US$950 to 1000 per month, 8 hours Monday to Friday. The insurance is US$400 to 600 per year. - Feb 2009
