The Real Cost of Hiring a Yaya in 2025: Why ₱8,000 Is the New ₱5,000
By the Human+ Editorial Team, MaidProvider.ph
In Metro Manila, the search for a reliable yaya has always been stressful, but 2025 has introduced a new kind of anxiety — one driven not by personality mismatches or sudden absences, but by economics. Families are discovering that the helper they retained at ₱5,000 or ₱6,000 a few years ago is no longer staying. The issue is not attitude, nor commitment, nor “pa-burara.” It is, at its core, the cost of survival.
At MaidProvider.ph — which facilitates thousands of placements in NCR each year — our Human+ team has had a front-row seat to these shifts. The patterns are unmistakable: families believe they’re offering fair rates, yet turnover is rising; helpers believe they are working hard, yet falling behind. The gap between legal minimums and lived reality has widened.
Most families have already run the numbers:
the mandated NCR minimum wage of ₱6,500–₱7,000,
the SSS-PhilHealth-Pag-IBIG obligations,
the 13th-month allocation.
Legally, the math is clean.
But the legal minimum and the survival minimum are no longer aligned.
Inflation has rewritten the domestic labor economy.
A salary that once provided stability now evaporates the moment it is sent home.
This guide is drawn from what we see daily at MaidProvider.ph and within our Human+ standards: the real forces shaping the yaya market, the economics behind turnover, and the new expectations facing Metro Manila households in 2025.
1. Why a ₱6,000 Salary No Longer Works
In 2020, ₱6,000 could support a small provincial household. In 2025, it cannot.
Basic commodities tell the story:
• Rice: ₱52–₱60 per kilo
• Canned goods: up 20–25%
• School supplies: up 40%
When a yaya requests bale in her second month, this isn’t mismanagement — it’s mathematics. The ₱4,000 she sent home is gone halfway through the month.
At MaidProvider.ph, we see this pattern in nearly every case of sudden resignation: the helper’s family is financially underwater, and a ₱500 increase elsewhere pulls her away.
Families who quietly adjust salaries retain staff.
Families who stay at “standard rates” experience constant churn.
2. The 2025 Household Budget Reality
There are two numbers families must face:
The legal minimum — compliance.
The retention minimum — stability.
Using aggregated data from 2,000+ Metro Manila household placements through MaidProvider.ph:
LEGAL VS. RETENTION COSTS (2025)
Legal Minimum (NCR Estimate)
• Basic Salary: ₱6,500–₱7,000
• Gov’t Benefits: ~₱1,500
• Food: included in meals
• 13th Month Allocation: ~₱583
• Hygiene: minimal
• Connectivity: none required
Retention Reality (Human+ Observed)
• Basic Salary: ₱9,000–₱12,000+ (experienced Pros)
• Gov’t Benefits: ~₱1,800
• Food Cost: ~₱4,500/month
• 13th Month Expectation: ~₱1,000
• Hygiene Support: ~₱500
• Connectivity (load/WiFi): ~₱300
Monthly Total:
Legal Minimum: ~₱9,000
Retention Reality: ₱17,100–₱20,100
For many families, this number is surprising.
For us at MaidProvider.ph, it explains nearly every turnover incident we analyze.
Hiring a yaya is not a ₱7,000 decision —
it is a ₱200,000+ annual commitment.
3. The Competitor Households Don’t Consider: Migration
Parents in BGC believe they are competing with households in Alabang. They aren’t.
They are competing with Dubai.
Overseas domestic worker salaries in 2024–2025:
₱23,000–₱29,000 per month, with guaranteed days off and clearer contracts.
The financial gap is so large that local households cannot compete on salary.
But they can compete on something more meaningful:
• Predictable hours
• Privacy
• Respectful treatment
• Real rest days
• A livable routine
• The emotional connection to a local family
At MaidProvider.ph and within our Human+ placements, we regularly see nannies decline migration because their current household offers something money cannot easily replace: dignity and belonging.
4. The Legal Misunderstanding That Can Become Expensive: Drivers
A recurring issue among households is the belief that drivers are automatically covered by the Kasambahay Law.
But Supreme Court rulings — including Atienza vs. Saluta — chronicle that many drivers fall under the Labor Code instead, which carries broader employee protections.
MaidProvider.ph now issues two separate contract templates — one for kasambahays, one for drivers — to reflect these distinctions.
A single wrong classification can expose families to penalties larger than a year’s salary.
5. The New Economics of Dignity
The 2025 nanny economy is shaped by inflation, migration, and shifting norms — but its foundation is simpler: retention follows dignity.
Inside the Human+ program at MaidProvider.ph, we see the real dynamics daily:
• Yayas stay with families who treat them with respect.
• Helpers remain where boundaries are clear and routines humane.
• Nannies turn down higher-paying roles when they feel their work is valued.
In the end, money keeps workers afloat.
But dignity makes them stay.
The era of “cheap help” in NCR is over.
A more structured, mature, and ethical domestic labor system is emerging — one where workers are trained, households are better informed, and both enter the relationship with clearer expectations.
Families who adapt not only hire better —
they help uplift the entire household care economy.