Posted:
Is there minimum wage for maids in India. I think the master's science graduate is underpaid extremely but that needs to be fixed. Maids need pay, leave etc. I don't know about food, but leave certainly.
I think outside of the maid issues, India in general needs serious labor reform. Indian people work too hard without much reward. They do work long shifts, which is exacerbated by long commutes. There is no weekend in India. Everyone works half day on Saturday. People are expected to attend calls or do project statuses during vacation. When certain projects are due people are expected to stay in the office even overnight if need be.
In the United States, I have worked in private and public sector, small business and large corporation - and in all places, I've had a work-life balance. When I was hourly, I received overtime pay and holiday premiums. Once clocked out I was done.
As a salaried employee - yes I do have rough periods. There are busy times when I will work long hours or weekends. But in general its a nice Mon-Fri 9-5 spiel. My commute is short. I get my evenings and weekends. I get to take off early for happy hours during some days in Summer. Many times I genuinely check out and leave work behind.
It is not easy to compare India and USA because the labor market is different. Growing up there were not many job opportunities, especially for women. Outsourcing and economic expansion have created a huge middle-class explosion in India. What is exploitation to me is manna from heaven for other people. Even though they work late and don't have a whole weekend, people embrace it - because they are living lifestyles they never dreamed of when they were younger. Their entire experience is different from the American middle class.
But it has negative repercussions and cost to society. The middle class is busier and more tired than ever before. There are no more stay at home moms. With every single person in the household working long hours, there is no real time to clean, cook, do laundry, or do any chores at all really. What time people have, they want for leisure. So while the pay rates for house help has increased a lot - the proportion of work they are expected to do has increased exponentially and outpaced their pay raise. Now, house help spends exponentially more time working and less with their kids - causing a cycle of negligence and underperformance at home. The stress of life has made people more rude and dismissive if not abusive than ever before. There is also the underlying psychology that that I have risen in social ranks - but my bai should not be able to do so - we need to keep the gap so that society functions.
Apart from that, there is a huge impact on relationships. People just do not have time to sustain and nurture all their various relationships. I've seen so many people in India say their kids in USA call and visit more than their kids in India itself. Family socialization is getting concentrated to blood and close relatives and people are no longer as close to family who is more than twice removed the way we used to be back in the day. When people focus on family - friends and love life suffers. If you focus on friends, family and love life suffer. If you focus on love life - family and friends suffer. There is just not enough time to nourish all relationships vital to one's soul.
Unless there is some improvement in labor expectations over time soon - the economy is going to be like this hovering dementor that is sucking the very soul and joy out of people.
Unless there is some improvement in labor expectations over time soon - the economy is going to be like this hovering dementor that is sucking the very soul and joy out of people.
Anupamaa
20