Female domestic workers registered the highest recruiting costs on the Ministry of Labor’s Musaned web page, with an increase of more than ten times the costs to recruit men in other professions, according to the latest data posted on the website.
Costs to recruit a Vietnamese female worker stood at SR21,000, while Indian house maids second in the list with SR18,000, followed by Sri Lankans with SR16,000 and Filipino workers standing at SR14,000.
The time frame for a Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and Indian worker to come to the country is generally 5 months, while a Filipino worker takes 6 months to arrive in the Kingdom.However, prices experience a steep drop when it comes to their male counterparts. According to Musaned, the costs to recruit a male Sri Lankan house worker generally stands at SR2,000, but it costs even less to recruit a male Indian house maid, only SR1,800.
In other trades, worker’s costs vary according to the job. For example recruiting a foreign driver can affect the employer’s budget more or less, depending the country the employee hails from. The costs to recruit an Indian or Sri Lankan driver, with the cheapest prices at Musaned, ranged between SR4,000 to SR5,000, with the time frame to begin work between three and four months respectively.