How flatmates share a cook or maid’s salary

Agree the basics first

• --What the job includes — cooking which meals, cleaning which rooms, how many days a week.
• --The monthly salary and payment date — paid on time, every month, by one person.
• --Leave — how many paid days off, and what happens beyond that.
• --The festival bonus — many households give a bonus, often around a month’s salary, at Diwali or another festival. Agree it on day one.

Splitting the salary fairly

• --Equal split — the default for cleaning, which benefits everyone equally.
• --By meals eaten — fairer for a cook when one flatmate travels a lot or eats out most nights. Keep a simple monthly count, or agree fixed shares (for example, one person pays a reduced share for dinners only).
• --Mixed — cleaning split equally, cooking by meals.

Whatever you choose, the help is paid the full salary regardless of who ate what — the split is between flatmates, not a deduction from the cook.

Keep a record

One person pays the help (often by UPI, which leaves a record) and logs it; the others pay their share. Log advances and bonuses the same way. When someone moves out mid-month, the record makes the final share easy — see moving out cleanly. For the rest of the shared bills, see splitting bills with roommates.

Frequently asked questions