Employer asks why maids need to be given food allowance: “Why can’t helpers just cook something for themselves?”

SINGAPORE: An employer took to social media asking others for the rationale for giving a food allowance to helpers.

Food allowance means giving helpers a set amount each month so they can buy their own food. The second option is shared food, where your helper eats whatever the family eats. According to the Manpower Ministry, employers must provide their helpers with three meals a day.

In an anonymous post to a support group for domestic helpers and employers alike, the woman asked the rationale behind giving a food allowance to helpers. “Why can’t the helpers just cook something for themselves? We employers just provide the ingredients and they can cook whatever meal they like.. even if the helpers has (sic) certain dietary requirements we can just buy the kind of ingredients that they need and they can just cook it”, she wrote.

Other helpers and employers who commented on the post had a range of responses. Some said an allowance was, in a way, akin to giving the maid freedom to choose what she wanted to eat, whereas the employer buying ingredients and asking her to cook her own meals with them was a bit limiting. Other maids said they should be entitled to a food allowance.

Here’s what they said:

A domestic helper took to social media asking if the money her employers had given her when they went on holiday was enough.

In an anonymous post to a support group for domestic helpers and employers alike, the maid wrote that her employers returned to their home country for about two months. During this time, they left her home alone. “My emp go back to they are (sic) country about 2 months and they only gave me $100 for a month to buy food. I want to know is that enought with $100?” the maid asked.

Maid says her employers, who went on holiday, gave her only $100 a month for food