Guatemala City - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
The daily rate for a housekeeper is $25-$40. It is less if you have someone full time. Lots of people use nannies and housekeepers. They are very kind and do excellent work. - Mar 2023
Plentiful and cheap. Guatemalan people tend to be very polite, hard working, dedicated, and loyal. Rates vary. I pay someone for full-time cleaning, cooking, and dog walking approximately $320 USD every two weeks. Please pay your employees well and give them raises! - Oct 2022
Readily available. Many families have an empleada either full or part-time. It would help us out a lot if we could hire a driver to transport our kids and nanny to activities, but hiring a driver costs at least twice as much as an empleada and Uber is challenging with car seats. I haven't met an empleada or nanny here that speaks more than a few words of English. Our nanny has only a small amount of English, which has been hard for our elementary-school aged child, who doesn't speak Spanish. She is absolutely phenomenal with our younger children, though, and most nannies I've seen are excellent, hands-on, and nurturing. - Oct 2022
Household help is very inexpensive. Having household help fulltime, Monday through Friday 0700-1500 will cost you about $450 monthly. They do everything from babysitting, cleaning, ironing, cooking, grocery shopping, you name it. You do have to provide them with medical which runs you about $80 a year and two bonuses one in July and another in December. You can also hire part-time help for $30 a day. You can get your car washed and detailed for $15. Dry cleaning is about $1 per item. - Jul 2021
We pay US $500/month for FT nanny and $250/month for a twice-a-week housekeeper. Almost everyone we know has at least a housekeeper. - Jan 2020
We employ a part-time housekeeper/nanny three days a week, and pay her the going Embassy rate of around US$20/day (8 hours). Many, if not most, members of the Embassy community employ either part-time or full-time housekeepers and/or nannies. Houses have a small living quarters intended for live-in employees. - Mar 2019
Domestic services widely available. Guatemala labor laws in effect and salary mandates for part time and full time under debate (in law). Generally 150- 200 quetzales (roughly $20-25usd) is standard for both maid or gardener services; fluctuating on size of housing/yard. Often gardeners have own lawnmowers and machete. Drivers are not typical. - Feb 2019
Available, and US$15-18/day for live out housekeepers. - Jun 2015
Everyone has a helper, either PT, FT or live-in. Drivers aren't common. Helpers are around US$350/month. - Apr 2014
Domestic help is easily available, even if the quality of the service may be hit-or-miss. We had to let a couple of maids go, but eventually found a very good one. Maids and nannies usually make minimum wage, which has just been raised to US$303 in 2013. - Jan 2014
Help is very available due to high unemployment rates, and costs only about $8-$10 per day. - May 2010
Cheap and available - day maids, live in maids, nannies, cooks, gardners, etc. - Mar 2008
