Minimum Wage ‘unfair’ For Employers?

By Author: Maid Agency
Total Articles: 34
Comment this article

Over the years, many women come the United Arab Emirates to work as housemaids so that they can earn good wages. Most of them get jobs through Dubai Maid Agencies. However, embassies of various countries have fixed a minimum wage that should be paid to citizens of their respective countries coming to work as domestic workers in the Emirates. However, this has agitated some of the employers who feel it is unfair to them. They feel that they are already incurring other costs apart from paying wages to these maids. They have to pay for the visa, housing, food etc. On the other hand, these domestic workers feel that they are exploited and are asked to do a lot of household work. So the question to be asked here is that is the minimum wage unfair for employers? Let us discuss.
Ahead of the peril of sounding pompous by going on and on about the significance of human rights – how one should stick to it in each and every manner possible and be a part of the cause towards the advanced of society, there is one question to be asked. Do you have confidence in the minimum salary to be paid ...
... to domestic workers is not fair to employers? In fact, at a FNC (Federal National Council) meeting this week, a member of the FNC disputed that it is as a matter of fact unjust for Emiratis to be required to put up with this minimum pay. According to the opinion of The National, a member of the Federal National Council has it in mind to ask the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister, if missions should be permitted to proactively make sure these minimum wages are sustained. Al Rahoomi reveals that many residents have made a complaint to him regarding this, arguing that housemaids must not be paid a 100% hike in wage while they are not carrying out additional work. He adds that this situation has existed for many years. Therefore, they are astonished. Al Rahoomi asks that if both the employer and the maid are happy, why you should change it. This means exploiting the Emirati nationals. Some have begun to tie up side agreements with housemaids in order to evade minimum salaries. Many of you perhaps know that minimum pay for domestic helpers and housemaids have by this time been put into effect in the UAE. In the month of November, more than a hundred Maids Agencies in Dubai and Maid Agencies in Abu Dhabi have signed contracts with Philippine Association of Manpower Agencies on the way to accept the monthly minimum wage of DH 1469. A comparable contract applies to Indian domestic helpers who have to be paid a minimum monthly salary of DH 1100, for Indonesian maids, it is DH 800, for Sri Lankans it is DH 825 and for Bangladeshi nationals, it is DH 750. Nepal has had a on the whole a difficult history with maid mistreatment in this region (especially Saudi Arabia) that has barred women aged under thirty from doing jobs in the Arabian Gulf and insists on a minimum salary of DH 900 per month who are aged above thirty. All these years everyone has got away with remunerating domestic helpers with virtually nothing, the suggestion of a minimum pay which even now remains astonishingly low is exploiting any one, is imperceptible.