Siti

Hello, my name is Siti Zulaikha, but you can call me Juli. I’m 37 years old and I’m from Indonesia. I have two sons, who are 8 and 6 years old. I’ve worked in Singapore for about 4 years, with a total of 4 different employers.

I first came to Singapore in December 2021, and my first job was with a Chinese family. They included a ma’am, sir, and a baby. My main duties were looking after the baby, doing household chores, and cooking. I earned a salary of $650 and had Sundays off. I worked with them for 29 months, but I decided to leave because they couldn’t increase my salary when I wanted to renew my contract.

For my second job, I worked with an Indian family that had a ma’am, sir, and two kids: an 8-year-old boy and a 1.5-year-old girl. They also had another helper from India. My job focused on taking care of the baby girl and cleaning her room, with no house cleaning or cooking involved. My salary was $700, and I had weekly days off and public holidays. However, I only stayed with them for 2 months because the family had to return to India due to issues with the children.

My third employer was a mixed family—ma’am from Indonesia and sir from the UK, with a 1.5-year-old baby boy. I was responsible for looking after the baby, doing household chores, and cooking. I earned $750, and I had weekly days off and public holidays. I worked with them for about 10 months, but I left because the ma’am decided she didn’t need a helper since she wasn’t working.

My last employer was again a mixed family, with a ma’am from the Philippines and sir who is Singaporean-Chinese. They have one daughter who is 13 years old and a medium-sized special dog. My job there was just to do household chores and take care of the dog, with no cooking included. I earned $800, with weekly days off and public holidays. I want to change jobs because the dog has been biting and scratching my legs almost every day.