Domestic Helper Salary Hong Kong 2026｜Minimum Wage, Food Allowance and the Two-Year Cost of Hiring

When you hire a domestic helper in Hong Kong, the salary is only part of the total cost. On top of the domestic helper minimum wage, an employer also has to handle food, air tickets, visas, insurance, holidays, free medical treatment, and the severance payment or long service payment that may arise when a contract ends or is terminated.

AI Summary

- As of 10 September 2026, the Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW) for foreign domestic helpers remains HK$5,100 per month, applying to Standard Employment Contracts signed on or after 30 September 2025. If the employer does not provide free food, a food allowance of not less than HK$1,236 per month must be paid on top.

- Counting 24 months of the MAW alone, two years of wages come to HK$122,400. If a cash food allowance replaces free food for the full two years, wages plus food allowance total HK$152,064 — before air tickets, journey allowances, visa fees, employees’ compensation insurance and any agency or documentation fees.

- The applicable MAW is fixed by the date the contract is signed. When a new level is announced, it normally applies only to Standard Employment Contracts signed on or after the specified effective date; existing contracts are not automatically rewritten, and no top-up is required unless the employer and helper lawfully agree an increase separately.

As of 10 September 2026, the Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW) for foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong is HK$5,100 per month, applying to Standard Employment Contracts (ID 407) signed on or after 30 September 2025. An employer may pay more than the MAW, but may not use a private agreement to set the contractual wage below the applicable MAW.

Beyond wages, the employer must provide free food throughout the period of employment. Where both parties adopt a cash food allowance instead, the current level is not less than HK$1,236 per month. So if food is not provided in kind, the minimum monthly cash payment is HK$6,336; where free food is provided, the minimum cash wage is HK$5,100.

The MAW and the Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW) that applies to employees generally are two separate systems. A domestic helper employed under the Standard Employment Contract and required to live in the employer’s residence is not calculated on the hourly basis used for the statutory minimum wage.

Year-by-year record

In recent years the domestic helper minimum wage has generally been reviewed annually. The MAW was held at HK$4,630 in both 2020 and 2021, and rose again from 2022 onwards.

The 2026 review: what to expect and the labour-side demand

The government reviews the MAW and the food allowance periodically, and in recent years announcements have clustered around late September. However, as of 10 September 2026 the result of the 2026 review had not been published, and no firm announcement date had been given. At this stage it would be wrong to present any increase as a figure the government is "expected to raise it to".

At the Labour Department consultation meeting on 5 July 2026, the Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU) proposed raising the MAW to HK$6,670 per month and the food allowance to HK$2,770. This is a demand put forward by the labour side — not a government proposal, forecast, or confirmed new level.

When announcing past review results, the government has said it takes into account Hong Kong’s overall economic and labour market conditions, the near-term economic outlook, employers’ affordability, the basic needs of foreign domestic helpers, and the views of different stakeholders.

If the government does adjust the MAW, the new level normally applies only to Standard Employment Contracts signed on or after the specified effective date. Contracts already signed are not automatically rewritten by a later announcement, and in principle continue on the wage level applicable when they were signed.

Under Hong Kong’s MAW system there is no separate "Filipino helper minimum wage" and "Indonesian helper minimum wage". Foreign domestic helpers of any nationality — Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, Burmese and others — are covered by the same Hong Kong MAW floor as long as they are employed under the Hong Kong Standard Employment Contract.

That said, the government or consular authorities of a helper’s home country may impose their own exit, recruitment, contract attestation or other procedural requirements. The Hong Kong statutory and contractual minimum should therefore be understood separately from home-country deployment requirements; neither set of rules on its own describes the whole hiring process.

Actual helper salary in Hong Kong can also sit above the MAW. Employers may agree a salary with the helper based on years of experience, language ability, experience caring for infants or elderly family members, and the demands of the role. The Hong Kong government does not publish a single "average market salary" for Filipino or Indonesian helpers, so where an article cites recruitment platform data, it should state the survey period, sample and method clearly to avoid confusion with the government minimum.

Beyond the salary — what does hiring a helper cost over two years?

Counting the current MAW alone, 24 months of wages come to HK$5,100 × 24 = HK$122,400. If the employer does not provide free food for the full two years and instead pays the minimum food allowance of HK$1,236 per month, 24 months of food allowance comes to HK$29,664, giving a combined total of HK$152,064.

That is still not the full two-year cost of hiring a domestic helper in Hong Kong. The employer is also responsible for travel to Hong Kong and on completion or termination of the contract, a daily food and travelling allowance during those journeys, the visa fee, employees’ compensation insurance, and any agency or documentation fees arising from how the helper is recruited. Because air tickets, insurance and agency fees have no official fixed amount that applies to every household, the more accurate approach is to budget fixed items separately from variable ones.

Overlooked costs and common misconceptions

First, home leave on renewal is not the same thing as ordinary annual leave. Where both parties renew, the Standard Employment Contract generally requires the helper to return to their place of origin for a break of not less than 7 days before the new contract starts, with the employer bearing return travel costs. Where the Immigration Department has approved a deferral of home leave, the approved arrangement applies instead.

Second, employers generally no longer pay the employer levy. The Employees Retraining Levy for foreign domestic helper employers ceased to be collected from 1 August 2013.

Third, there is no standard statutory price list for what an employment agency may charge an employer; the items and fees set out in the service agreement govern. For job seekers, Hong Kong law limits an employment agency to a prescribed commission of no more than 10% of the first month’s wages, chargeable only after the job seeker has successfully obtained employment and received that first month’s wages.

Fourth, ordinary household spending on a domestic helper does not automatically become a salaries tax deduction. A helper’s wages are not a specific household-expense deduction under salaries tax; whether any other deductible item applies must be assessed separately under the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

Fifth, the Immigration Department sets a basic financial requirement for employers. Generally, for each helper employed, household income must be not less than HK$15,000 per month, or the employer must have assets of comparable value sufficient to support the whole contract period. This is not simply a requirement that the applicant’s personal annual salary reach a set figure.

Payment rules

A helper’s wages must be paid in full as contracted, and no later than 7 days after the end of each wage period. The employer and helper may agree to pay in cash, by cheque or by bank transfer; in practice, a traceable payment method makes record-keeping easier.

To reduce later disputes over wages, food allowance or other payments, employers should keep payment records, and it is advisable to issue a wage or allowance receipt for the helper to acknowledge.

Rest days, holidays and annual leave

Like other employees protected by the Employment Ordinance, a domestic helper is entitled to rest days, statutory holidays and paid annual leave. There must be not less than 1 rest day in every period of 7 days, and a rest day should be a continuous period of not less than 24 hours.

There are 15 statutory holidays in 2026, with Easter Monday newly added from 2026. An employer cannot simply pay the helper in lieu of a statutory holiday. If the helper is required to work on a statutory holiday, the employer must give at least 48 hours’ prior notice and arrange an alternative holiday within 60 days before or after that statutory holiday.

Paid annual leave increases with years of service, from 7 days up to a maximum of 14 days:

Free medical treatment and work injury liability

Under the Standard Employment Contract, the employer must provide free medical treatment throughout the period of employment, including consultation, hospitalisation and emergency dental treatment. This obligation is not limited to illness or injury caused by work. The express exception is any period during which the helper leaves Hong Kong voluntarily and for personal reasons.

Where a helper is injured at work or contracts an occupational disease, the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) applies. Employers must take out employees’ compensation insurance for a domestic helper; this is a statutory requirement, not optional cover.

To terminate a helper’s Standard Employment Contract in the ordinary way, either the employer or the helper must give one month’s notice in writing under the contract, or pay one month’s wages in lieu of notice. The employer must also settle outstanding wages, payment for untaken annual leave, return passage, and — where the conditions are met — a severance payment or long service payment.

Severance payment generally applies where the helper has been employed under a continuous contract for not less than 24 months and is dismissed by reason of redundancy, or the contract is not renewed by reason of redundancy. Long service payment generally requires not less than 5 years of continuous employment together with one of the situations specified in the Employment Ordinance — for example dismissal or non-renewal other than by reason of redundancy or serious misconduct, resignation on grounds of permanent unfitness for the job, resignation on grounds of old age at 65 or above, or death in service.

The basic formula for a monthly-rated employee is: (last full month’s wages × 2/3) × reckonable years of service. Where the law allows, the employee may instead elect to use the average wages of the 12 months preceding termination as the basis.

In calculating severance or long service payment, the monthly wage is capped at HK$22,500, so the maximum reckonable amount is HK$15,000 per year, and the maximum total severance payment or long service payment is HK$390,000. The same period of service generally cannot attract both a severance payment and a long service payment.

Where a case involves a cash food allowance, other allowances, or the transitional calculation following the abolition of the MPF offsetting arrangement for employment terminated on or after 1 May 2025, the wage definition in the Employment Ordinance and the Labour Department’s calculation method should be applied. A single simplified formula is not a safe basis for working this out alone.

The first distinction to draw is between statutory employees’ compensation and additional medical cover. Employees’ compensation insurance is the statutory cover an employer must take out, and it deals mainly with the employer’s compensation liability for work injuries and occupational disease. But the Standard Employment Contract separately requires the employer to provide free medical treatment during employment, which is why many households compare comprehensive domestic helper insurance to help meet hospitalisation, outpatient or other medical costs.

When comparing domestic helper insurance, six things are worth checking first: whether the employees’ compensation cover meets the statutory requirement; hospitalisation and accidental dental benefits; the outpatient benefit limit and any per-visit or annual caps; rest-day personal accident cover; repatriation and replacement helper expenses; and whether there is a waiting period, excess or deductible.

Generali Hong Kong’s Domestic Helper Insurance provides comprehensive insurance coverage for your domestic helper. It not only fulfills employers’ legal obligations as required by local regulations, but also offers extra benefits, including hospitalization and accidental dental expense coverage, as well as outpatient expenses of up to HK$5,000 with free benefits. 

The plan also covers helper’s death or permanent disability due to accident on rest days, with coverage up to HK$100,00. Repatriation expenses and costs for hiring a replacement helper are also covered if needed. Download the product brochure for more details.