Ok Guys & Girls..read carefully.... I pay my help well at $8,000/mo. They have been with me 6 years, plus Christmas Sueldo of 1 month. That makes 13 pay months/year + I give them each $600 per month for Cel cards (I bought them each a cel long time ago). They pay their food. I provide them electricity, water coffee, sugar, laundry detergent, bath soap and toiletries. Again the figures are monthly, but I have annualized my "gastos". No, they did not see me coming, Hillbilly. I give them raises about every 1.5 years. That is very decent pay for workers in this area. I do not live in town... and now it cost 50 pesos for the guagua to Samana each way. If my help did not live on the property, they would have to pay transportation and @$5000/mo sueldo, it doesn't leave much to eat with....btw my property ~ 18,000 m2 which all is cared for (no monte). I don't expect everyone to have these expenses, but they are real for my situation. Again HB, I do pay well by Dominican standards.
Yes Grahame, my electrical service is extremely expensive @$13/kwh (basically $0.40/kwh USD). It is Luz y Fuerza, a private electric utility who provide 24 hour service. It is still less expensive than operating my diesel generators (have two). I have two a/cs (18,000 BTU/ea), pool, 2 refridgerators and 1 chest freezer, and two water pumps (two independant water systems, a submersible Myers well pump and a cistern water pump) and I do have an inverter but rarely use it, as the electrical service is excellent thus far.
Oh I almost forgot, my three dogs eat 2 large bags/month (54 lb) dogfood plus medicine, another $3,000/mo. needs to be added to my list.
|