Nobody explains the system when you first hire help; you inherit whatever the previous tenant or your neighbour did. Ten minutes with this and you will know the five arrangements under which domestic staff work in India, how pay is set in each, what an agency actually does, and what to expect when either side wants to end it.
The five arrangements
- Part-time, per task. The worker comes once or twice a day for a fixed set of tasks and works several houses in a round. Pay is a sum of tasks: cleaning is ₹4,500 a month, cleaning with dishes and clothes ₹8,000. A cook for one meal is ₹6,000, two meals ₹9,500. This is how most urban flats run.
- Full-time, live-out. Eight to ten hours a day, one household, goes home at night. Nannies at ₹13,000 and elderly care attendants at ₹15,000 are usually this. So is a trained patient attendant at ₹18,000.
- Live-in. Stays in the house, works a long day with rest hours, takes a weekly off and an annual trip home. A live-in housekeeper is ₹16,000, a cook ₹17,000, a nanny ₹18,000, 24-hour elderly care ₹24,000, a couple ₹28,000. Food and stay are on top of the salary in every case.
- By the day. A helper for a deep clean at ₹700, a caretaker while you travel at ₹900, a cook for a function at ₹1,200, waiters at ₹900 per event. Eight hours and a meal is the assumption.
- Deployed staff. Office housekeeping at ₹11,500, pantry at ₹12,000, a supervisor at ₹17,000. The agency employs, pays PF and ESI, invoices you with a margin, and rotates people. This is the model for offices, PGs and hospitals, and almost never for a home.
How pay is set
There is no national minimum wage for domestic work. A few states have notified minimum wages for it or set up domestic worker welfare boards, and several cities have active unions, but in practice the rate in your society is set by what the neighbours pay. That rate moves up with the city tier, the locality, the size of the house and the worker's skills, and it moves every year with the festival raise.
Three things the first-time employer gets wrong:
- Paying for cleaning and expecting everything. The three maid units are separate. Adding dishes to a cleaning-only arrangement adds to the salary.
- Counting leave as absence. Two to four days a month for part-time staff is paid leave, not a deduction. A weekly off for full-time staff is the same.
- Forgetting the bonus. One month's salary at the worker's main festival, paid before it, every year. It is part of the pay, not a tip.
Agency or direct: what each actually does
Direct. You find the worker through a neighbour, the society's WhatsApp group, the gate register, or a verified profile on TheHire. You agree the terms, you pay the salary, the whole salary reaches the worker. You do the police verification yourself, which takes a form and a week.
Placement agency. The agency introduces a candidate, charges a placement fee of half to one month's salary, and usually promises a replacement within a period if it does not work out. After placement, you are the employer. Ask what verification the agency actually did; "verified" often means a photocopy was taken.
Deployment agency. The agency employs the worker and invoices you monthly. Common for offices, rare for homes. If a home arrangement is described this way, ask what fraction of your payment reaches the worker; agencies that keep a large monthly cut are the single most common complaint domestic workers have about the trade, and the worker will tell you quietly if asked.
Whichever route, two things do not change: you may copy the worker's ID, you may never keep the original, and police verification is yours to do, not the agency's to promise.
A day in each arrangement
Part-time round. A maid arrives at a fixed slot, works her list in about an hour and a half to two hours, and leaves for the next house. Four to six houses a day is normal. If you are late opening the door, she is late for all of them, which is why a spare key with a trusted neighbour or a smart lock makes the arrangement work.
Full-time live-out. A nanny arrives before the parents leave and goes when they return. Eight hours is the base; hours beyond that are agreed and paid. Lunch is provided.
Live-in. A working day from early morning to after dinner, with a rest of two to three hours in the afternoon that is genuinely hers, a room or a proper sleeping space with a door, and a weekly off that is a full day out of the house. Night duty for a nanny or a 24-hour attendant is part of the role and is why the rate is higher; it is not free.
Couple. Usually in an independent house or a farmhouse. The cooking and cleaning half and the driving, gardening or gate half each have a duty sheet, and the salary is one figure for both.
Society rules, gates and apps
Gated societies register domestic staff at the gate with a photo and ID, and most now use an app that logs entry and exit. Register the worker on your first day, not the fourth. Some societies restrict lift use or working hours for staff; know the rules before you promise a slot. The gate register is also a practical reference: a worker who has been registered to three flats in the society for five years has a track record you can check in two minutes.
Starting, trial and notice
- Trial. Two or three paid days before the monthly arrangement starts is normal and is fair to both sides.
- Start. The duty sheet agreed, the salary date set, police verification form filed in the first week, the gate registration done.
- Notice. Two weeks to a month either way for monthly staff, with pay up to the last day. For live-in staff, time to arrange the journey home. Leaving without notice happens, and it usually means a problem was not said: late salary, extra work, or a household member who was not safe to be around.
- Ending it. Pay the month, return any documents, write a reference on the phone, and leave a review on TheHire. The next household is relying on it.
What the household owes, and what it does not
The household owes a fair salary on a fixed date, leave, a bonus, a safe place to work, supplies, food for a long day, and verification done properly. It does not owe a job for life, and it is not required to lend against salary. The worker owes the duty sheet, punctuality within reason, notice before leaving, and honesty about what she can and cannot do.
Most arrangements that last ten years in Indian homes look the same from the outside: the tasks were written down once, the salary came on the same date every month, the bonus arrived before the festival, and the raise did not have to be asked for. Nothing in that list is expensive.
When the arrangement needs more than household staff
A parent who needs injections, a drip, catheter care with a doctor's order, or post-surgery wound dressing needs a home nurse, not an attendant; the nursing category prices that separately. A pet that needs walking and feeding while you travel is the pet care category, and families with pets usually fold it into the maid's or the couple's sheet with an extra line and extra pay. A full-time cook with specialised cuisine is listed under cooks, and the two categories overlap for a reason.