Indonesian maid agency fees

Many households in Malaysia have a maid (or two and more) in their home. Indonesians make up a big percentage of foreign workers in this country who are employed as domestic workers.

On Dec 1, 2011, following the Lombok Agreement, a three-year moratorium was lifted allowing employment of Indonesians as house-help in Malaysia to resume. Despite the moratorium, influx of maids from Indonesia has not been significant. This has been due to agents complaining that the fees stipulated under the agreement were too low to make a profit.

Under the agreement, prospective employers need to pay a RM4,511 agent fee, which includes RM2,711 to be paid to the agency and a RM1,800 advance payment which employers can recover in instalments from the maid's salary over six months.

This would mean that in future, the cost of employing a domestic worker from Indonesia would be higher than what it is today.


Source: The Star..Malaysia, Indonesia to renegotiate maid agency fees