Toronto - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
It's much like what you'd pay in a big U.S. city. Most people do everything on their own or have a cleaner drop by now and then. - Aug 2022
Expensive, and what you would expect in North America. Commercial maid services are available, and some people avail them. - Jun 2018
First world wages, so expensive. - Apr 2018
You can hire a cleaner, however it is not cheap. - Nov 2016
Domestic help can be very expensive, so we opted not to hire any help. Same as you would probably do in the States, do here. - Oct 2016
Expensive. It's not common to have domestic help. Our cleaning lady was US$80 for 4 hours every two weeks (and that was standard). - Nov 2015
Fairly expensive: around $15 an hour and up. - Jul 2015
Expensive but available. - Jan 2013
It is available but I am not sure about the cost. - May 2010
Canada has a program whereby live-in caregivers for children or the elderly can become permanent residents after two years of providing services. The participants do not have to stay with one employee the whole time so you can find someone looking for work in this program easily, but the difficulty is that you have to register with the government as an employer and then pay employer taxes, which makes hiring someone through this program somewhat expensive, totalling about $1700/month. You also have to have accomodation avaliable for them. Many of the caregivers are Filipinas with years of experience in Hong Kong so the quality of care is good. Housecleaning, childcare and cooking are amazingly provided by one person. Some of these individuals work weekends and evenings to get some extra money so finding a babysitter is never a problem. - Apr 2010
Great help, but expensive. - Aug 2008
Minimum wage is around $8 and help is plentiful. Canadian service tends to be slower than in the U.S.This applies everywhere from the bank to the grocery store to office workers. - Jan 2008
