My Low Wage Life Experience

Philippine ‘Maid’

Poverty is a serious matter for many people. In the developing world, poverty is seen everywhere and is rather difficult to hide. Many aspire of having a better life and escaping poverty but many die with that dream. There are those lucky ones who is able to persevere and elevate their position out of it. For the millions, they are stuck with their poor lifestyle. This is the sad truth.

Philippines is currently suffering with the problem of poverty. It is a big problem because with a population of nearly 100 million people, more than 55 percent of the population under the poverty line. This is the curse of capitalism within the developing world. Some are able to cope while they rest are eaten if they cannot keep up. For those people under or hovering around the line, there aren’t many solutions apart from manual labor. Thus, they either work for the wealthy Filipinos. Some are not immune to beguiling foreigners into marrying them and giving them a green card. Some go to great lengths to perform illegal activities to feed their families. But for the rest that want to have a clean conscience, they work abroad.

The Filipinos who do choose to work for the wealthy Filipinos are confined into various chores. Some are washers, cleaners, nannies, and maids. Collectively, they are called katulong or helpers. For the most part, they are treated well and with dignity. Some have very generous bosses and give them many benefits. There are even those who send them to the hospitals when they get sick and send money to their relatives when necessary. There also those who are mistreated and abused. The experiences of these Filipinos vary from house to house.

These Filipinos do not earn much despite their rather heavy workload for their bosses or ‘Amo’. On average they earn about 10,000 to 15,000 Philippine Pesos, which is the rough equivalent of 200 to 300 USD. I have also heard stories about helpers that neglected when it comes to being paid their salaries. I have had my fair share of having maids or helpers. We use to have 3 to 4 at any given time before. When listening to their life stories, it is rather depressing to hear their families struggling to live and eat everyday. Thus, when they receive their salary, they send half it to their families. Unfortunately, that half is not necessarily to live because they have to divide between food, electricity, and education. To mitigate their woes, my father usually sends money to their families and even sends their children or siblings to school. In addition, my father gives them an allowance. This is an example of generous family. Some are not as generous and are rather stingy. Some even refuse to give a raise. Unlike in the United States where a service is paid by the hour, Filipino workers are customarily paid by a flat day rate, which is 3.00 USD or 150 Philippine Peso.

Those who want to earn more money usually go to another country to work the same job and to earn the same amount of money. The difficult part is that many get abusive bosses. Some torture them for fun and some natives make fun of them. My driver told me that when he was working in Saudi, some Arabs would call out a Filipino walking in the street and throw eggs at them. Then they would drive off laughing incessantly. There also bosses who mistreat their workers and sometimes refuse to pay them their dues. These are the hardships that they have to go through in order to provide for their families. There is also the emotional stress from being so far away from home. These people usually work in China, the Middle East, Hong Kong, USA, and various parts of Europe. Some come home after several years and they become well off and start their own business and turn to a new page. For the rest, they are still living the same lifestyle only to return to become maids and to discover that very little has changed.