How to Hire a Full-Time Maid in Mumbai: Salary, Contracts & Rights
A working guide for South Bombay, Bandra, and the suburbs — with real 2025 numbers and the paperwork you actually need.
Hiring full-time help in Mumbai is unlike hiring in almost any other Indian city. Rents are punishing, servant quarters are rare in modern buildings, and household budgets stretch thin. What follows is a working guide — the kind of note you would want if a friend was about to hire for the first time.
The Mumbai landscape
In South Bombay and Bandra West, most full-time help lives out and commutes from Kurla, Govandi, or Bhandup. In Powai, Chembur, and the eastern suburbs, live-in arrangements are still common, especially for cooks and nannies working with young children. This changes the salary conversation entirely — and it should.
A live-out full-time maid in Bandra West is not the same job, or the same salary, as a live-in cook in Powai. Do not use one number for both.
What to pay in 2025
Based on 92 households we spoke to across the city between January and March 2025, the honest ranges are:
- Full-time live-out maid (8 hours, 6 days): ₹14,000 – ₹22,000
- Live-in cook (breakfast + one meal + dinner): ₹18,000 – ₹28,000
- Live-in nanny (infant, 6 days, one weekly off): ₹22,000 – ₹35,000
- Driver (12-hour day, 6 days): ₹20,000 – ₹30,000
Add a Diwali bonus of one month's salary and a smaller Eid or Christmas gift if relevant. These are floors, not ceilings — a good hire kept for years costs less than a cheap one replaced twice a year.
The first conversation
Start with the work, not the wage. What are the hours? What are the tasks — and, more importantly, what is not on the list? Ironing? Two dogs? School pickup on rainy days? Write it down together, in Hindi and English if that helps, before any number is discussed.
The paperwork
Even for a small household, a two-page written contract prevents ninety percent of the small conflicts that later become large ones. It should cover wages, working hours, weekly off, sick leave, festival bonus, notice period, and — this matters — the process if either side wants to end the arrangement.
Living together, well
A good hire is a relationship, not a transaction. Small courtesies — a private space, clean linen, respectful language in front of guests, timely payment on the same date each month — make the biggest difference. So does treating a weekly off as sacred.
