Xiao Liu has been busy trying to find a replacement domestic helper to take care of her parents after their permanent one announced she will not be returning after the Spring Festival holidays. 

"I have yet to find a suitable one. It's hard. If I cannot find one before the Spring Festival, I will have to attend to my parents myself," said Liu.

Her octogenarian parents live alone in Beijing's Chaoyang District and depend on a live-in domestic helper to take care of them.

In the run up to the all important Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, tens of thousands of housemaids are heading for their hometown for family reunions, creating a huge gap in the domestic service market.

"We need about 7,000 more maids during the Spring Festival period," Wang Zhiqiang, manager of Zhuyou Home Service Company, told China Daily.

Wang's company is one of the largest providers of domestic staff in Beijing.

However, the shortage is by no means a festival phenomenon - it is happening increasingly every day. It just takes on a greater urgency during the Spring Festival - a time when most Chinese will try and be with their family.

Zhang Jianji, vice-chairman of the China Home Service Association (CHSA), said the shortfall in Beijing's domestic staff market stands at between 80,000 to 100,000 ordinarily.

And the problem is no better in other big cities.

Grim work

"Many of my fellow villagers working as maids here will go home for Spring Festival, but I will stay," said Zhao Chunying in her 30s.

"I will work until May and then go home to reap the wheat. Then I will not come back. I'm fed up with working as a maid," she said.

With high hopes, Zhao arrived in the capital in 2000 from a small village in Henan Province. Knowing nothing except farming, she got her first job as a live-in housemaid taking care of an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke, on a salary of 300 yuan (US$36) a month.

To earn as much as possible, Zhao always opts to work with the old and infirm which pays more.

"Now I can get 800 yuan (US$96) per month. But the work is really hard."

"I have to do everything for them. Cooking, feeding, bathing, cleaning, almost everything."

And the work with her latest employer, a woman paralyzed and incontinent, has been relentless.

After finishing the daily grind, nights were invariably disturbed by her charge.

Two months have proven all she can take. "I'm making money almost at the cost of my life," said Zhao, close to tears.

She plans to find another job to take her up until May, when she will leave Beijing for good. "I do not want to be a maid anymore and I miss my family," said Zhao.

For the last 10 years her husband has been working for an interior decorating company in Guangzhou and their teenage son is away at boarding school. Since she has been working in Beijing, the couple have not seen each other for five years.

In a tale repeated over and over in the country, the raison d'etre of Zhao and her husband - to see their offspring get a good education - was evident.

"My boy is a top 10 student at school. His teacher said he could be admitted to one of the best universities in China. Going to university is very expensive and we want to save enough money for him," she said.

But Zhao will not be staying in Henan. She plans to go south to Guangzhou to try her luck.

"Many of my country folk earn 800 to 900 yuan a month working in a toy company there. Although I can earn almost the same money here as a housemaid, it's quite different.

"Maids have no freedom. You are awaiting orders all the time. And the working atmosphere is very depressing. You do not have your own life, no friends and no one to talk to. You always feel lonely. But being a worker in a factory, you are free when the work is done and you have a lot of colleagues around you," said Zhao.

Low pay, poor conditions

Despite the shortage of domestic staff to meet demand, thousands of those who have tried it are quitting. Low pay, excessive workload, unappreciated by the society and no job security, are among the most common reasons cited.

"Most people think a maid's work is very easy, and needs no special skill or knowledge so they are only offered a low salary," said Wang Zhiqiang.

In Beijing, their average salary is about 700 yuan (US$84) per month. Some experienced maids can earn about 1,000 yuan (US$120) while those with no experience or poorly educated can only get 500 yuan (US$60), according to the CHSA.

Things are worse in south China's Guangdong Province, where the average monthly salary is between 400 to 600 yuan (US$48 to US$72) and the lowest just 300 yuan (US$36), according to a report by the South Metropolis News. The fact that the minimum monthly income set by the Guangdong provincial government for local workers is 510 yuan (US$61) in practice appears not to include domestic staff.

In Shanghai, the minimum wage is 600 yuan per month, according to Tangqiao Home Service Company based in the city.

"In addition to the poor salaries," Zhang from the CHSA said, " most people discriminate against domestic staff."

"This is an historic problem," he explained.

Baomu is the name for live-in housemaids, a word which in Chinese also means servant.

In past times, servants were among the lowliest class. Totally dependent on their masters for food and lodging, they were also required to obey unquestioningly and do all kinds of work. Many had no possessions of their own and no independence.

"Today, a lot of people still regard housemaids in this way," said Zhang.

"I ran out of patience and just resigned," said Xiao Dai, who is registered with the Shiji Home Service Company in Beijing's Chaoyang District.

The 38-year-old from Anhui Province has been working as a maid for three years.

She said her last employer was an old man with a fiery temper.

"He always yelled at me and vented his anger on me." After sticking it out for two weeks, she quit.

But some are more lucky in the employers they find and are treated well and with respect.

And the way an employer treats the maid is even more important than salary.

Wang knows of many examples in his company of domestic staff on low salaries, but they are unwilling to leave because their employers treat them like family members.

Employers' woes

Dissatisfaction is widespread on both sides, and employers have their own stories of domestic gripes to tell.

Most of the maids come from the countryside and are women aged between 30 and 40. They come to earn money to feed their family, support their children's education or pay off debts.

With no training, no knowledge of city life and often ill-educated, the only work they are fit for is in the low paid domestic or catering sectors.

They invariably fall way below the expectations of employers in terms of personality, hygiene, knowledge and the skills that are taken for granted by those from the city.

Some of them are introduced by a relative or someone from their hometown, but most of them find jobs through the domestic service companies.

"Most of the companies seldom give any real training. It is a factor which can and has proved very dangerous," said Zhang.

An elderly stroke victim reportedly died of gas poisoning in her own home last September in Beijing's Fengtai District because her maid did not know how to operate a gas appliance.

The woman's daughter later sued Beijing Sanba Home Service Company with whom the maid was registered.

In China, the domestic service market is very under-developed. There are no stringent regulations. Special training schemes are for very limited few, aiming at high end of the market.

And given the low salaries, poor working conditions and lowly status, currently prevailing in the sector, only the most disadvantaged are willing to join the ranks of domestic staff.

"Reforms are essential and urgently needed in this field," added Zhang.

(China Daily January 18, 2005)