‘Treated like a slave’: Domestic helpers tell of bullying and abuse

After the breakfast mess was cleaned up, the toddler and baby settled, and the parents and their oldest child had departed for work and school, Debbie could finally take a moment to herself.

It was mid-morning of what had already been another long day. She sank into the sofa cushions and let out a deep sigh. 

Then the phone rang.

“It’s not your break time,” the annoyed voice on the other end of the line informed her.

“Why are you sitting down? You should have something to do.”

Her employer was watching his home surveillance cameras from his office and he wasn’t happy.

Debbie was being paid $1,000 a month as a live-in nanny and domestic helper in the Cayman Islands. She was the primary carer for a 6-month-old and a 2-year-old, as well as responsible for cooking and cleaning for the family of five.

It was, she says, one of the worst experiences of her life.

“I was working from 5 in the morning till 7 at night, and then when they came home, I would have to stay up till they finished eating and wash up,” she told the Compass, speaking on the condition that we used a pseudonym.

“I asked when I was supposed to stop working in the evening, and they said that, because I was doing a live-in job, I had no finish time.”

By the time she went to bed, on an uncomfortable mattress in a cramped room, she said she was shaking, too tired to even sleep.

“I like my job. I am a workhorse. But this was too much like slavery for me,” she said.

Debbie left the post after fewer than six months and returned to Jamaica, poorer than when she started.

“I went to Cayman thinking I could make life better for me and my family, but unfortunately I had a bad experience. They treated me like a slave.”

Debbie’s experience was extreme but not unique. The Compass spoke to multiple domestic helpers – all using pseudonyms – who highlighted a wide variety of pay and conditions within different households in the Cayman Islands. 

“I have had some good bosses and some that treat you like a slave,” said another woman, Marsha, who has had eight different jobs in Cayman over a period of 12 years.

She said she never complained because she always needed a work permit and the employer’s signature on a release letter if she ever wanted to change jobs.

“Some employers hold that work permit over you like a knife at your throat,” she added.

Mistreatment and abuse

Some women, who said they now had good bosses and reasonable pay and conditions, recounted past experiences of mistreatment and abuse, and all said they routinely hear horror stories at kids’ events or around the fountain at Camana Bay.

Anne, who currently earns $9 an hour, said she had helped out a friend, who worked as a live-in helper for $500 a month, to pay for deodorant and other essentials.

She said the woman was working from 5am to midnight for a family of eight, cooking, cleaning, ironing and looking after children.

“She worked every hour she was awake, except for Saturdays. Just talking about it now makes me tear up,” she said. The friend eventually left the job and the island, and found work in the US.

“She had another job offer in Cayman,” said Anne, “but her employer had a friend in immigration…” She trails off as if nothing more needed to be said.

None of the women that spoke to us said they would dare make a complaint to Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman or to any other authorities. They felt they would not be listened to or their employer would be able to exert more influence and, in any case, they needed their wage and their work permit too much to rock the boat.

“We don’t have a voice here in Cayman. We need someone to speak for us,” said Marsha.

Struggling to survive

Even those, like Anne, who earn well above the minimum wage, are struggling as costs in Cayman increase.

“I love my job and I love my boss. I know she could get someone cheaper but she is not that type. She wants her kids to get good care,” she said.

But rising rent and grocery prices have made it difficult to survive on that $360 each week. Monthly rent costs $800, meaning there is little room to manoeuvre.

Despite the hardship, she is reluctant to move on. The family she works with is kind, she says. She can borrow the car for her own use and they pay her generous overtime rates for babysitting – all perks that previous employers had denied.

When she first came to the island, Anne said she was paid $150 a week. This was before the $6-an-hour minimum wage was implemented in 2016.

Her employer – a young, single mum – went out every weekend and didn’t return until 3am, expecting the service as part of the job description with no extra pay.

Debbie, the live-in helper who said she worked 14 hours a day, six days a week, said she was often called on her day off to do extra work.

“They didn’t like me to leave the house. I wanted to go out and see what the island looked like but I only got Saturdays off, and any time I was out, they would always call me back and ask me to do something.

“I would be at the beach or on the road and they would call me to come back and explain why their 11-year-old’s room was untidy.”

On one occasion, she stayed out till 9pm and returned to find the doors locked. Her employer told her if she stayed out past 9pm again, he would not let her back in the house.

A lottery of bosses

Marsha, the veteran domestic helper and nanny who has worked in Cayman for over a decade, said life in the islands for women in this type of work is almost wholly contingent on the personality and wealth of the employer.

Her first job was as a carer for an elderly woman, working 15 hours a day, six days a week, for $250.

She had just arrived from Jamaica at that time and was able to cut costs by living with older relatives already in Cayman, and walking to work. She didn’t have time to spend any money, so the low wage didn’t hurt as much as it might have.

“I was working almost every hour of the day, except for Sunday going to church – it was almost 100 hours a week.”

Over time, she moved on to better employers. There was a live-in nanny job for $800 a month on the Brac, but even with the accommodation provided, it was hard to live and she missed the support network of her relatives in Grand Cayman.

Back on the main island, she earned $300 a week looking after an elderly man, with extra pay for any weekend work. That was one of the good employers.

“I worked for some nice, generous people, but some of the others were really rough.”

After leaving due to rollover, she returned to Cayman to work for $350 a week as a nanny. Taking advice from a friend, she got CPR and swim training and her pay increased. Now she earns just under $2,000 each month, with use of a car included.

Cost-of-living challenge

The cost of living has all but obliterated those pay gains, however. 

“I used to shop in the dollar aisle at the grocery store but that doesn’t exist any more,” Marsha added, her voice rising with indignation as she reeled off the prices of various items, “$9.99 for cooking oil, $10 for Frosted Flakes”.

Rent is the largest expense. She currently pays more than half her salary, $1,000, for a one-bed with a shared kitchen.

And she fears if the minimum wage goes up, so will her rent.

“These landlords are the next set of people,” she said, grouping them with bad employers.

“Domestic helpers don’t have rights – there needs to be a law that landlords can’t take advantage.”

Anne expressed similar concerns. She pays $800 for a one-bedroom apartment.

“Honestly, it is a dump. The bathroom is falling apart, there’s termites all over the place. I got tired of complaining to the landlord. I can’t afford to go anywhere else right now anyway,” she said.

And she fears if the minimum wage goes up and people start to earn a bit more, it could go straight into the pockets of the landlords.

“Once that goes in, the rent is going to go up, I know it. It is not going to be $800 any longer. It is going to be $1,300,” she said.

Despite the challenges, many people come from far afield to work as nannies or domestic helpers in Cayman, most finding the job through relatives or friends already on island.

Half of $1,600 wage goes home each month

Dolores, who recently arrived from the Philippines, said she was very happy with her pay and conditions. She receives $1,600 a month, one quarter of which goes to rent. She sends $800 home for the care of her child and gives herself an allowance of $400 a month for food and other needs.

“For me, financially, it has been a good move. It is a wise step because I am saving more money,” she said.

“Fortunately for me, I was hired by nice people and I don’t have problems with them.”

Even those that earn extremely low pay and work in difficult conditions say it is worth it for them to hold on in the hope of finding a better job.

Among the classifieds in the newspaper last week was a nanny position advertised for an annual salary of up to $42,000.

But just as many ads brazenly advertise working hours and pay that falls below the minimum wage.

The social media page KY Nanny Finder is filled with posts advertising positions – some of them for very low salaries. And each one has scores of people responding, with interest in the job.

“People are arguing on that site and saying ‘you shouldn’t work for that’ but how can we tell them that? Some people just say, ‘I have to do what I have to do’,” said Marsha.

How much should a nanny cost?

Joanna Boxall, publisher of Cayman Parent and Cayman Resident magazines, said there was a vast disparity in what families are prepared to pay for nannies and domestic helpers on the island and on the type of services provided. Both magazines have covered the issue in some depth.

Boxall said a qualified nanny with an early childhood degree and a certification, such as the prestigious ‘Norland Nanny’ accreditation, could earn a much as $4,000 a month. A very good domestic helper on the other hand, who can drive competently, look after children and clean the house, but would not be expected to do homework or organise afternoon activities, would be paid between $450 and $550 for a 45-hour workweek, she said.

A good employer would also give three weeks’ vacation, a ticket home once a year, a Christmas bonus of two-to-three weeks’ pay, health insurance that they do not have to contribute to, and the use of a fully paid-for car, she said.

She acknowledged not all families could afford that, but said treating people with respect was a bare-minimum requirement, and urged parents to try to pay a decent wage or look for other options, including childcare centres.

The actual range of salaries, she believes, runs anywhere from $200 a week, to $4,000 a month.

Boxall said many families do treat their workers well and get great employees in return, who become part of the family.

“A lot of children really bond with their helper. This will be one of the most important people in your child’s life so you want to make sure they are well paid and that they are happy and healthy enough to be a good role model and be the best selves for the children they look after every day.”

On the flip side, she said she had heard stories of mothers who had fired their helpers out of jealousy of their close relationship with their children. And still too many accounts persist of rogue employers.

“Some people are getting really low salaries and abusive treatment,” she said.

Childcare options limited

With as many as a third of workers in Cayman earning less than $10 an hour, according to the most recent Labour Force Survey, she says she understands why some families pay “as little as they can get away with” to their helpers.

And with childcare spaces in short supply, Boxall, who owns Little Trotters nursery school, which has a waiting list of more than 400 children, acknowledged that some parents felt they had no option but to recruit a nanny.

A new parent, who spoke with the Compass, said they had been stunned at the lack of options for their child.

“Everywhere was fully booked,” they said, saying they were forced to try to hire a helper, at a monthly price that is similar to the fees charged by Cayman’s childcare sector.

Boxall suggests the issue of affordable childcare is something government should take a closer look at. She proposes following the UK example and licensing some mothers as childcarers, who can look after up to five children in their own home. She believes that could allow lower income families to go to work and fund childcare without having to hire a nanny at wages that are below the poverty line.

An undervalued profession?

Many of the helpers that we spoke to felt their profession was undervalued. Some women had degrees in childcare, CPR training, swim training and elder care certifications, and were still only making minimum wage.

One woman questioned, “It is looked on as a menial job. How is someone taking care of your child a menial job?” 

For most nannies, lack of money or mistreatment from employers won’t stop them giving 100% to the children in their care, Marsha told us.

But she said it was difficult to combine looking after young children with household chores amid pressure from employers who lack compassion.

“It is challenging but we make it work. We Jamaicans know how to multitask,” she said.

“We pray and ask for God’s protection to ‘let the day run smoothly’, and we give thanks at the end of the day when the job is done.”