Wadala

What it costs in Mumbai

• part-time cleaning (jhadu-pocha)₹3k – ₹9k / month

  One household, part-time, six days a week. Both sources price this by task bundle rather than by the hour: GetBai (BookMyBai) quotes INR 3,500-9,000/month for a 'part-time maid'; Kaamwalibais quotes INR 3,000-12,000/month and states the figure 'depends completely on tasks selected'. A single task (utensils only, or sweeping-and-mopping only) sits at the bottom; sweeping, mopping, utensils and laundry together sits at the top. The stated upper figure of INR 12,000 appears to describe a near-full-time task load, so this range is capped at 9,000 where both sources agree.

  Moves with: Number of tasks, flat size, locality (Bandra, Andheri and Powai are explicitly quoted higher), and how many other households the worker already serves in the same building.

• cook, one meal₹5k – ₹15k / month

  IMPORTANT - this band covers one OR two meals: neither source publishes a separate one-meal and two-meal rate. Kaamwalibais quotes INR 5,000-15,000/month for a part-time cook and states the drivers are 'number of meals, family size, cuisine type'; GetBai quotes INR 7,000-15,000/month for a cook. One simple meal for a couple sits near the bottom; two meals with rotis for a family of four or more sits near the top.

  Moves with: Number of meals, family size, cuisine complexity, whether the cook also does utensils.

• full-time live-out₹12k – ₹30k / month

  GetBai quotes INR 12,000-20,000/month for a full-time maid working 8-10 hours a day; Kaamwalibais quotes INR 15,000-30,000/month for 'all-day availability with cleaning, laundry, cooking'. The worker goes home at night.

  Moves with: Hours, whether cooking is included, household size, locality.

• live-in₹20k – ₹40k / month

  GetBai quotes INR 20,000-35,000/month for a 24-hour live-in maid; Kaamwalibais quotes INR 20,000-40,000+ for 'round-the-clock availability', and both state that a private sleeping space and meals are provided by the household on top of the cash salary. 'Round-the-clock availability' is the sources' own phrasing and is not a lawful working pattern - see notes.

  Moves with: Household size, presence of children or an elderly person, night duties, flat size.

• nanny / childcare₹10k – ₹35k / month

  GetBai quotes INR 10,000-22,000/month for a babysitter/nanny; Kaamwalibais quotes INR 12,000-35,000/month for babysitter/childcare, with the range driven by 'child age, number of children, experience'. The top of the range is for live-in infant care.

  Moves with: Child's age, number of children, live-in vs live-out, experience and training.

• elder care₹18k – ₹40k / month

  Kaamwalibais quotes INR 18,000-40,000/month for an elder caregiver based on 'assistance requirements and health monitoring', and INR 18,000-45,000 for a patient caretaker handling mobility, medication and post-surgery care. This is non-medical attendant work; trained nursing is a separate and higher-paid category.

  Moves with: Level of physical assistance needed, night duty, live-in vs live-out, training.

How people actually find someone

• existing staff referral

  The ILO's 2017 survey of over 1,000 employer households in Delhi and Mumbai found hiring is overwhelmingly informal: 51% of employers found their worker through neighbours and 21% through other domestic workers already working nearby; relatives and friends were used more in Mumbai than in Delhi. In practice a household asks the family next door, or asks the worker they already employ to bring someone.

  Cost: No fee. A referral costs nothing; do not let anyone charge the incoming worker for the introduction.

• Urban Company (Insta Help, formerly Insta Maids)

  An on-demand hourly cleaning/cooking service piloted in Mumbai in March 2025, booked in the Urban Company app for a 15-minute-arrival slot. Launched at an introductory customer price of INR 49/hour (reduced from INR 245/hour), with Urban Company stating service partners are paid INR 150-180/hour plus health, life and accident insurance, and that 132 hours a month (22 days x 6 hours) yields an 'assured' INR 20,000. The brand was renamed from 'Insta Maids' to 'Insta Help' within days after criticism.

  Cost: Charged per hour to the customer; introductory price INR 49/hour at launch. Not a placement fee - the worker stays a platform partner, not your employee.

• Helper4U

  An online placement marketplace operating since 2016 for maids, cooks, nannies, caregivers and drivers. Households buy a tiered hiring package to see helper profiles and interview candidates; the salary is then agreed directly with the worker.

  Cost: Tiered one-off hiring packages paid by the household; the site states 'No Commission, No Monthly Fees' on the worker's salary. Package prices are not published on the public pages.

• BookMyBai / GetBai and Kaamwalibais (Expoint Recruitment Private Limited)

  Mumbai-region placement agencies covering Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. They maintain a candidate pool, run their own identity and address checks, and place a worker with the household; both publish annual Mumbai salary guides that this dataset draws on.

  Cost: GetBai refers to 'one-time or annual service charges' for agency placement but does not publish the amount; Kaamwalibais does not publish a fee on its salary page.

• MyGate

  Not a hiring channel but the system most MMR societies run the gate on: MyGate reports 27,000+ communities and 5 million+ homes across 50+ cities using it for visitor management, resident communication and society administration. Daily help are normally issued a gate pass or code through it, so a new worker has to be added by the flat owner or tenant before they can enter.

  Cost: Paid for by the society, not the individual household.

In Wadala: Large working-class housing nearby keeps cooks, drivers and help available , our own read on the area, without a source behind it, unlike everything above.