Beijing expat Tobal Loyola recently released the data from his third annual Ayi Survey. Begun in 2010 as Loyola’s personal mission to solve the age-old mystery of how much to pay one’s ayi, the survey provides valuable information about how much people in Beijing pay their ayis. This year, the average pay came in at RMB 20 per hour.
Loyola, who also runs ayi listing service PerfectAyi Beijing, gathered his data informally from 98 volunteering respondents. Though Loyola starts with a disclaimer that the calculations are not official, the results provide useful insight as to an ayi’s going rate. The results are broken down by location, number of people in a household, ayi’s English skills, ayi age, years of experience, tenure with current employer, employer demographics, and employer time in Beijing/China. Here are some highlights from the 2012 Ayi Survey.
The overall hourly average is RMB 20, but it seems residents in CBD and the Dongzhimen/Sanlitun area pay the most, between RMB27-28 per hour for a part-time ayi. Full-time ayis garner about RMB 18 per hour in all locations. Unsurprisingly, ayis with good English skills earn about RMB 6 per hour more than those with no English skills, and those with more than 5 years of experience as an ayi earned about RMB 21 per hour, RMB 4 per hour more than those with less than a year of experience.
When it comes to the employers, Loyola’s results show the demographic that pays the most for their ayis is Europeans, who pay an average of RMB 22 per hour,. That’s RMB 2 per hour more than North Americans and a whopping RMB 7 per hour more than Central Asians. Predictably, residents who have been in Beijing for under a year pay an average of RMB 29 per hour, while those here for one to five years pay RMB 21 per hour.
Loyola’s results also cover holiday pay. Of the respondents, 70 percent pay a Chinese New Year bonus of one month’s salary. Half the respondents give their ayis paid Chinese holidays, and when employers go on holiday, 35 percent of them still pay their ayis.
Though Loyola’s results are from a small sample and not official, they are an excellent guide to figuring out how much an ayi should be paid. Full results are posted on the Yahoo! groups Beijing Café, Beijing Mamas, and Beijing Organic Consumers Association.
Photo courtesy of flickr user dani920.
