Minimum wage for domestic helpers to be introduced

Minimum wage for domestic helpers to be introduced

JAKARTA (JP): The City Manpower Office is considering to set minimum wages for domestic helpers to improve their living standards.

The regulations are currently being prepared by the remuneration commission, Haryono, a member of the commission, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He said the regulations will follow a study recently conducted by the University of Indonesia.

"The study sets three minimum wages: Rp 20,000 a month for a helper working for a lower class family, Rp 40,000 for the middle class and Rp 60,000 for the upper class," Haryono said.

He added that the commission has not decided whether minimum wages will follow the study exactly. "We are still reviewing it," he reiterated.

Aslam Sumbhudi, a staff member from the university, said that the families were not classified based on their income but on how much land they live on.

"It's difficult to classify families based on their income and the city administration has agreed with the classification system," Aslam said.

He explained lower class families are those living on less than 36 square-meters of land, middle class on 36 to 150 square- meters and upper class on more than 150 square-meters.

Aslam said the minimum wages proposed is monthly take-home pay. It does not include food, boarding and recreation allowances provided by the family.

The head of the office, Suhatman, explained that the introduction of a minimum wage is designed to enable the city administration to protect servants.

"This is part of the city administration's plan to to control the operation of servant distribution companies," Suhatman said.

He said that out of the 101 servant distribution companies registered at his office, only 25 have permits from the municipality.

But the city administration cannot do anything to close the remainder down because of the absence of proper laws, he said. (yns)