Officially, ayis are seen as a kind of 钟点工 — a wage worker. That’s where the 15-30 RMB/hour comes in. In practice, though, it’s usually much more convenient to pay your ayi a fixed amount monthly. This monthly payment method is called 包月. Both systems can have problems.

The hourly system encourages slow work. I think this is pretty obvious. Why should the ayi wear herself out doing work quickly when that just means she gets paid less? Most ayis will not overdo this trick, but don’t expect snappy cleaning when you’re paying by the hour.

The monthly system encourages fast work. I paid my first ayi in Shanghai on a monthly basis. At first everything went well. She was a pretty good cook. But there were no absolute hours specified from the get-go. It was more of a “come and cook, and then do a bit of cleaning” arrangement. As time passed however, she started leaving earlier and earlier. The “cook and clean” routine went from two hours each time to barely over an hour. Her cleaning efficiency suffered quite a bit.

I think the best balance is to pay monthly, but insist on fixed hours. It was my mistake for not doing this. I’m sure my ayi was trying to finish quickly so she could rush off to another job. I don’t really blame her, but I think I made a rookie mistake. If your ayi knows she has to stay for a certain amount of time, there’s no temptation to do a sloppy job in order to leave earlier. I think it’s also a good idea to make the monthly payment a bit more than just the hourly rate multiplied by the total number of working hours per month in order to keep your ayi happy.