We should do away with ‘maids’, either foreign or local. All these years living in the West, I hardly encounter any Western family who employs maids in their households.

I have seen advertisements for ‘home helpers’, a few hours a week worth of work, to take care of kids after school, or another few hours a week to help with household chores, but not full-time maids. In fact, you can hire ‘home helper’ on a regular basis, but they are not called maids.

At the government level, we should legislate that anyone who works, either in domestic or commercial premises, should be compensated accordingly and be accorded rights under the law, ie, they should get at least minimum wage as well as Sosco and EPF contributions.

A worker is a worker whether local or foreign and they should get the same rights and benefits.

Yes, we know that Malaysia doesn’t have any minimum wage law, but it’s never too late to act now and legislate a minimum wage law now.

Enterprising Malaysians might set up ‘Early Childhood Education Centres’ in housing areas and villages, and charge parents by the hour. So parents can leave their young children at these centers before going to work, and pick up their children after work. In fact there are already businesses of this nature in the country.

High income parents might not have problem sending their children to Early Childhood centres, but low-income families might not be able to afford it.

Therefore, the government should subsidise low-income families so that they may be able to send their children to these centers, even for limited number of hours/days. Some households or parents should be encouraged to run this business, taking in children from the neighbourhood.

‘More money that the government will have to pay out’ you might say, but the cost-saving by not importing foreign maids would be in the hundreds of millions. Furthermore, we would be employing locals and reducing unemployment.

For those who can afford to employ ‘home helpers’, they must pay at least minimum wage as well as other obligations like workers’ insurance, Soco and EPF contributions.

It is more desirable that in a two-parent (husband and wife) family with young children, one of them stay home to raise the family. The government should encourage this by giving better tax breaks and subsidies, so that they don’t end up living in poverty.