Hacker News Reader

In places where this is common (Hong Kong? Singapore?), isn’t it also normal to provide the housekeeper a small room in situ to live? So they’d not have any housing expenses?

I have some friends here in NYC that have visiting housekeepers that come weekly to clean their apartments. To be frank, I’m still kind of “wtf, you can’t clean your own place?” when they mention it.

View on HN

In Malaysia we had this - they're often brought in from Indonesia, especially the places which are destitute. Recently Indonesia has been rising in wealth (though recent politics have fucked that up). And Malaysia has become more of a high income country, meaning everyone lives in condominiums without spare rooms instead of suburban houses. I don't think this is affordable in HK or SG.

It was also a culture shock when I went to Australia and found everyone cleaning up after themselves. Apparently it doesn't work as well in richer countries due to higher cost of living/minimum wage.

IIRC Hong Kong and Singapore also tends to bring in people from lower income countries for this kind of work.

It's totally a thing in HK. Indonesia or the Philippines is where the maids come from.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com