Ah, the Chinese New Year holiday… The week where business in China seems to come to a halt and the annual homeward bound migration takes place all over the country. This holiday used to mean that you need to stock on groceries because all your local shops will be closed, but not anymore. Most larger supermarkets will be open, and there’s always the food delivery apps that are working overtime.

While it’s time for China’s largest annual travel, COVID-19 has put a major damper on things and many are choosing to stay put even though it means not seeing their families for the holiday.

For those with full-time live in ayis, Chinese New Year can be a challenging time each year. Not only are you left to manage home and family on your own for a week, but there’s also always the question of whether your ayi will actually return after the CNY holiday. While it seems like a no-brainer that you should return to work after a long 10 day holiday, there are ayis who will choose to resign during CNY after receiving their holiday hongbao to spend more time with their families in their hometown, since in past years it’s never been difficult to find new employment after returning to Beijing.

This year, however, there are ayis who are choosing to stay in Beijing rather than make the trip home due to COVID-19. So what do you do when ayi chooses to stay at your home but isn’t working?

In China, if an employee is working during the public holiday they’re paid three times their normal salary. But if you didn’t ask ayi to stay and she’s not expected to work during CNY, are you expected to still pay her? No.

Recently a friend told me her live-in ayi has been foregoing going home on her weekly day off to avoid coming into contact with anyone with COVID-19. To make ayi feel more comfortable, she and her husband have been taking their newborn daughter out during the day to let their ayi stay home with some peace and quiet. While that might work for weekly day trips, it’s not a solution for the cold, 10-day CNY holiday.

If your live-in ayi wants to stay and work during CNY, what are your options?

Double or Triple Pay

If money isn’t an issue then you can work out either paying ayi double or triple her regular salary to stay and work during CNY. Note: The holiday hongbao shouldn’t be included. That’s their annual bonus and should be paid separately. Check out our blog on how much to pay for the different types of ayis.

Double Time Off

If ayi prefers to stay and work during CNY she can trade her working days for double the number of days off to be taken later when it’s safer to travel.

Partial Working Days

Ayi can rest for three (or whatever number you both decide on) days with regular pay and keep working the remainder of the holiday.

Obviously, you’re not going to let your hourly ayi stay at your home to avoid traveling during CNY. But if your live-in ayi is from somewhere that’s considered high risk and she’s choosing to stay in Beijing rather than return home, appreciate the fact that she’s putting health and safety first and make the most of your time together during the CNY holiday.

Since most people with live-in ayis have children at home, it could be a great time for the kids to learn more about ayi’s hometown and the unique holiday traditions that she grew up with. There’s no need to make it awkward and avoid the house just because ayi is there on her day off. The live-in ayi employee/employer relationship is different than that of a normal nine-to-five job. Ayi is involved in almost every aspect of your life here and becoming friends with your ayi makes communicating that much more natural and your time together more fun and educational.

KEEP READING: Are You Paying Your Ayi Enough? the Results of Our Survey Are In

Images: Pexels

The results for the latest beijingkids Ayi Survey are in!

If you haven’t heard of hiring an ayi, you probably haven’t lived in Beijing long enough. Just about every Beijinger who has the means to hire an ayi would consider one because they can relieve you of grueling everyday responsibilities like pesky housework or even entertaining young children.

Yet for many foreigners (and locals, for that matter) the ayi industry is shrouded in mystery. What exactly does an ayi do? How much should you pay her? What are reasonable working hours?

In an effort to gain some clarity for Beijing families, every year, Tobal Loyola, an expat who works at the beijingkids parent company True Run Media, runs the ayi survey. He quizzes respondents about their ayi‘s work hours, pay rates, experience, responsibilities, and benefits. The first Ayi Survey was conducted in 2014, and in the years since, the industry has undergone subtle but evident changes such as higher pay rates and the growing popularity of part-time ayis.

Below are the results from the latest survey, which was conducted in October 2019. A diverse sample of 134 respondents took part in the survey, ranging from newbies to old Beijingers, living in almost every area of Beijing.

Full Time vs Part Time Ayis: Work hours

37% of respondents hire a full-time ayi, while 63% of respondents hire part-time ayis. The majority (42%) of respondents have their full-time ayis work 40-50 hours per week, so about 6-7 hours per day.

For part-time ayis, the numbers range from less than 10 hours to more than 40 hours per month.

Full Time vs Part Time Ayis: Pay

On average, pay rates have grown substantially in the past years. Keep in mind that different ayis with different amounts of professional experience won’t have matching salaries, so disparities in pay rates are completely normal.

Monthly salary ranges widely with the majority spanning from RMB 5,000 to RMB 7,000 RMB for full-time ayis.

On the contrary, most part-time ayis have hourly rates that range from RMB 30 to RMB 50.

Household Details

The majority of survey respondents live in households of either 3 or 4 people.

If you want a pet but not the responsibility that comes with it, you could consider hiring an ayi. Approximately 30% of respondents had pets for the ayi to care for, and many of those respondents own more than one pet.

Hiring and Experience

Most people in our survey (58%) found their ayi through a referral from friends, neighbors, or colleagues, while some were introduced to their ayis through WeChat and contacting online agencies.

Although most respondents have only had their current ayi for less than two years, the majority of their hired ayis have over six years of experience. Formal Domestic Training, First Aid, and English speaking skills aren’t considerations or priorities of most of the respondents, and most respondents don’t know if their ayis have had training and knowledge of first aid, while more than half of the respondents labelled their ayi’s English skills as nonexistent.

Tasks and Responsibilities

The most common responsibilities for ayis are housekeeping, cooking and preparing food, doing the laundry, receiving packages, ironing clothes, dealing with building management and workers.

When asked what they liked most about their ayis, the words that appeared repeatedly were “reliable”, “friendly”, “caring”, and “nice”.

Benefits

Aside from salary, many of our respondents give their ayis various benefits, including 13th-month pay (>60%), a bonus in the form of hongbao (>40%), paid vacation days (50%), paid sick days (38%), official national holidays off (77%), and even being paid when the family is away (70%.)

KEEP READING: What You Need to Know About Finding (and Keeping) an Ayi

Graphics by Michelle Zhang

For many expats one of the perks of living in China is being able to afford full-time domestic help, and one of the first Chinese words that many newcomers pick up is ‘ayi’. Ayi basically means ‘aunty’ but is a very flexible word, which can be used to address any older female stranger or new acquaintance, or to address a female service worker, in this case, your nanny/housekeeper/domestic worker.

In the US, the average cost of a full-time live-out domestic worker is about RMB 5,400 a week. That’s no small sum, which is why being able to afford full-time help is such a luxury. In Beijing, however, it’s surprisingly affordable, and you can usually hire a full-time ayi for under RMB 10,000 a month. As well as taking care of the mundane household chores, leaving you to explore the city with the family and enjoy your time in Beijing, your ayi can become a deeply cherished, important part of your family. Here’s how to find the perfect ayi.

Finding and Interviewing an Ayi

The process for finding an ayi can be a bit tedious if you don’t know where to start. Fortunately, fellow expats are generally more than happy to share their ayi agency contacts and references for their favorite ayis. If you’re not comfortable asking others for references, a quick visit to our sister publication the Beijinger’s classified section can be a great place to start looking and give you an idea of how much you’re looking at spending for full-time help. Alternatively, the next time you visit your local grocery store, stop by the bulletin board around the checkout area. Many ayis are specifically looking to work with expat families and will put up flyers in markets like April Gourmet and Jenny Lou’s.

Then, when you’re ready to interview, don’t be shy about asking lots of questions. For some of us this part can get a bit uncomfortable, but it’s better to get all the hard, and personal questions out of the way rather than find out that you’re not comparable later on.

Here are some useful discussion topics and questions to get you started:

1. Does ayi speak English? If so, how well? Always confirm their language level rather than accepting a simple yes or no.
2. Has she worked with foreign families before? If so, where were they from? Sometimes agencies will classify all foreigners together without taking into consideration cultural differences.
3. Is she certified in CPR or first aid?
4. Be specific about what her duties are. Never assume that just because you’ve had an ayi who voluntarily cooked for the family, all ayis will.
5. How old were the kids she’s cared for before?
6. Will she work on weekends? If she’s not living with you, will she need to leave work on time each day or will she be ok with sometimes staying a bit late?
7. If you have pets, does she have experience working for a family with pets or does she have any allergies?
8. Is she trustworthy? Was she recommended by someone you know? If not, can she provide you with a copy of her ID card and health check certificate?
9. If you’re planning on hiring a live-in ayi, ask her specifically about what she’s expecting her living situation to be.

Setting up Your Family, and Ayi, for Success

Even when you’ve found your perfect ayi, welcoming a total stranger into your home when there may also be a large language barrier to contend with, is not always easy. We’re all used to our own way of living, and teaching all the small nuances of how you like to run your home to a new person is a challenge. Even something as simple as cooking your favorite meal can present difficulties, as your ayi most likely didn’t grow up cooking with the same ingredients and appliances as you did.

Luckily, as expat mom Rebecca Archer previously shared with us, there are ways of getting around the language and cultural barriers to help the house run smoothly. Here are our top tips:

1. Have an ‘I don’t know where this goes’ box that your ayi can place items in. Empty it every few days, and if the same item keeps appearing in the box, then you can show your ayi where the item belongs.
2. When your children are close together in age and/or the same gender, it can be hard for your ayi to figure out whose clothes are whose. Expat moms have found the ‘dot system’ to be a lifesaver. Draw one dot on the clothing label of your firstborn, two dots for the second child, and so on. Then, when the item of clothing gets passed down to the next child, just add another dot. This is a huge help to your ayi who can look at the number of dots and know instantly whose item of clothing it is.
3. Put photos on toy storage boxes and also on the children’s clothing drawers, so that your ayi (and kids) can ensure that toys go into the correct box, and that trousers, shirts, and sleepwear are also put into their correct place.
4. If you don’t write Chinese, create images of the tasks you want to be accomplished that day and stick them to the fridge so your ayi has a clear idea of the tasks she needs to do.
5. If you have digital technology that resets whenever the power plug is pulled out, mark it with a ‘Don’t unplug me’ sticker to save you having to restore all the settings each time ayi does the vacuuming.
6. When you travel over the holidays, you will probably continue to pay your ayi her full salary so that she remains with you after you return. Leave her a list, or create a photo book of jobs for her to do while you are away. If she usually does the grocery shopping for you, you can also leave her a list of things to buy before you return, so that your family comes home to a fully stocked fridge.

Handy Resources:

Beijing Ayi Services
www.BeijingAyiService.com
service@BeijingAyiService.com
Tel: 6040 9096, 156 9999 2126

Nanny Beijing
www.nannybeijing.com
nannybeijing@hotmail.com
Tel: 5642 9208, 159 1050 7956

KEEP READING: Relearning the Art of Cleaning Up After Yourself

Photos: Tara Gillan, Unsplash

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue