Domestic Helper Malaysia

Cost planning

Full First-Year Cost of Hiring a Domestic Helper

See what the whole first year costs — quote, salary, permit and statutory fees — before you commit.

Prepare an enquiry
Chinese Malaysian couple preparing a first-year household budget

The short answer

The number that matters is your complete first-year cost. Add every one-off item, twelve months of salary, employer statutory contributions, worker deductions where applicable, insurance, renewal-related amounts and the household cost of accommodation and meals. Keep official charges separate from agency service fees.

At a glance

One-off
Agency and application itemsAsk what each line covers and which party receives it.
Monthly
Salary and living costUse the agreed contract figure and realistic household expenses.
PERKESO from 1 June 2026
Phased employer + worker rateRegistration is mandatory; the LINDUNG 24 Jam rate is split between employer and worker and rises over three phases — confirm the current figure with PERKESO before budgeting.
Uncertainty
Label it clearlyKeep an unconfirmed amount outside the committed total.

Cost planning

4 guides in this section

Compare identical cost buckets

Place two quotations into the same rows: agency service, official application charges, medical, insurance, travel, permit, replacement terms and payment milestones.

A lower price only matters when both quotations cover the same work and the same official items.

Cost categories balanced with contingency funds

Separate employer cost from worker deduction

A statutory total can contain different shares. Show gross salary, any lawful worker deduction and the employer contribution separately.

Replace every planning estimate with the current official amount or a written quotation before paying.

Official and primary sources

The rules and figures here follow official Malaysian sources as at the review date, and your own situation can differ. Check what applies to your own case with the Immigration Department of Malaysia for permits and passes, or the Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia for agency licensing and employment terms, before you act on it.

Questions this page answers

What is the true first-year cost?

It is the sum of written one-off charges, twelve months of salary, employer contributions, insurance and household living costs.

How should PERKESO appear in the budget?

PERKESO applies from 1 June 2026 as a phased employer-and-worker contribution under the LINDUNG 24 Jam scheme. Show the employer and worker shares separately, and confirm the current rate directly with PERKESO.

How do I compare two quotations?

Use identical rows and ask for the source, recipient and due date of every amount.

Useful next guides

Cost planning

Maid Permit Cost

Break down what makes up a maid’s permit cost — the visa pass, processing fee and permit issuance — instead of one unexplained lump sum.

Maid Levy Malaysia

What Immigration’s own guidance says about the annual foreign-worker levy for a maid working in a private home — it is one of the payments due at approval and at each PLKS extension, not a waived item.

Maid Replacement Cost

The fear behind a replacement is paying for everything twice. Here is what typically recurs for a new helper — and what should not.

Maid Salary Payment and Records

Know which statutory contributions are mandatory for a domestic helper’s salary, which are optional, and how to keep a payment record that holds up if a question comes up later.

Planning tools

Employer administration and special events

Insights and analysis

Fair comparisons

Indonesian vs Filipino Maid

How the Indonesian and Filipino domestic-worker routes actually differ — the government frameworks, wage-floor rules and paperwork — set out side by side so you know what to ask an agency, not which nationality to prefer.

Hiring process

Agency checks

Find and Compare Maid Agencies in Malaysia

A practical method for shortlisting and comparing more than one licensed agency side by side — what to check on each, and in what order — rather than judging the first conversation on its own.

Permits and rights

Full First-Year Cost of Hiring a Domestic Helper

Prepare a useful first enquiry

Add a few key facts about your household and the question you want answered, so the reply is useful.

  • Household route
  • Written figures received
  • What each amount includes
  • Payment milestones
  • Unclear cost item

This opens a WhatsApp draft to the DomesticHelper enquiry team, who help connect you with a maid-hiring service. Nothing is sent until you press send, and you can edit it first.

Open WhatsApp draft

Review and edit the draft before sending. See privacy and enquiry handling.

DomesticHelper editorial teamReviewed 17 August 2026Sourced from Malaysian government registriesIndependent of the hiring agenciesEditorial standards
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