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Comment by sonicggg | Hacker News Reader

They were paying here SGD600/month. Can you even survive in Singapore with that salary?

Most maids in SG are live-in, so her food (typically quite shitty food, but food nonetheless) and accommodation are covered.

This is the correct answer. Most maids in SG live with their employers, and the employer has to feed them. Maids are typically from developing nations like the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar etc.

600 SGD goes a long way in those countries.

SG also doesn't seem that expensive; granted, I was only there for four days, but things like public transport and food was quite cheap. It's just the housing that's really expensive from what I heard.

Mostly correct. You can get by quite easily on all fronts aside from housing.

Good housing will cost you.

FDWs in Singapore are usually live-in, the employer is required to provide appropriate living arrangements, food, medical care and insurance. Most FDWs will remit most of their salary to their home country, where SGD$600 will go a long way.

Singapore is an orderly country and there is some institutional support to safeguard the working conditions of FDWs. However there is a power imbalance between employee and employer, and the FDW may not know her rights, or it may not be in her short-term interest to assert them.

Additionally, many FDWs are employed through agencies who will usually prioritise fee-collection over FDW welfare.

It sounds like slavery to me.

It's much worse in neighboring countries like Malaysia. There maids are usually not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied because of the strict immigration laws that would punish heavily the family if the maid ran away.

Between that and the poor living conditions, it's indentured servitude for the time of their contracts. Absolutely awful.

HK is doing much better and has stronger laws to protect domestic workers (actual day off, etc...), Singapore is catching up but in other countries it's extremely sad.

I don't think that's an appropriate term for Singapore, at least. The FDW can resign at any time (whether their contract is finished or not), in which case the employer is obligated to return them to their home city. There is a mandated 1 rest day per week. (note for Westerners accustomed to a 2-day weekend: this is identical to working-class Singaporeans.) The legal system can and does prosecute cases of abuse against FDWs.

Generally speaking FDWs are pleased to have the opportunity to work in Singapore as it is 2-3 times what they could earn at home, but they do hope for a "kindly" employer.

Other countries do not have such a good reputation. Philippines actually banned Saudi Arabia from hiring domestic OFWs because of cases of indentured servitude, abuse and murder.

While I don't know the specifics here, my understanding from being there a few years ago was that most lower-income workers in Singapore commute in from Malaysia.

Most of them live in migrant dormitories, or usually with the case of maids, accomodation provided by their employer. Some apartments will have “maids quarters”, which will be a seperate room with its own entrance/exit. But that’s not terribly common in Singapore. Typically they’d just have their own bedroom.

And often enough the maid bedroom has no windows and is sometimes placed next to the kitchen.

Did she get accommodation too?

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