City’s army of domestic helpers set to receive social security payments (2)

"Signing an employment contract benefits both the company and the employees," he said, noting that with the increasing demand for domestic helpers, the contract guarantees the company a low staff turnover rate, as well as stable social security subsidies for them. It also guarantees a minimum wage of 2,500 yuan ($400) every month.

He also said that with a low turnover rate, the company will also have more enthusiasm in training the workers to improve their service quality.

A staff member from Huianju Home Economics Company, surnamed Han, said that paying nannies and cleaners social security subsidies means they will have to spend about 800 yuan on average for each worker per month.

"But we could not ask for a higher price from the clients," she said.

To help counteract the costs involved in setting up this scheme, Wang said that they would subsidize the companies over the next five years, including part of the money they paid for domestic workers' social security subsidy and at most 50 percent of the total investment of a company as financial support.