Live-in vs day maid in Bangkok — cost and the honest trade-offs

This is the question almost every Bangkok household asks before its first hire, and most answers online skip the part that actually decides it: the legal obligations are identical, so the real choice is about space, money, and privacy, not paperwork. Below is the honest comparison, the law that binds you either way, and a verdict on who each arrangement suits.

First, the three arrangements

"Day maid" covers two patterns, and it helps to separate them from the live-in option:

• Part-time day maid. A few hours, a few days a week. Usually paid by the hour. Common for condos and smaller households.
• Full-time day maid (live-out). Works a full day, most days, then goes home each evening. Paid a monthly salary. The middle path between part-time and live-in.
• Live-in maid. Lives in your home in a dedicated room, available across the day, paid a monthly salary with food and lodging provided on top.

The cost and lifestyle gaps between these three are large. The legal gaps are not, which is where most first-time employers get caught out.

The honest comparison

Salary and hourly figures are estimates drawn from public Bangkok agency and expat listings (June 2026); they are not from a survey and vary with nationality, English level, and duties. Legal duties per Ministerial Regulation No. 15 (B.E. 2567), in force 30 April 2024, and the Bangkok minimum wage of ฿400/day in force since 1 July 2025.

The cost difference, honestly

The headline numbers mislead in both directions, so read them carefully.

A day maid looks cheap because you only pay for hours. At an estimated ฿150–฿300 an hour, a part-timer doing three half-days a week is a modest monthly outlay, and you provide no room, no meals, and no utilities. That is genuinely the lowest-cost way to keep a home clean. The trade is that you get cover only when she is there.

A live-in maid looks expensive but buys availability. The salary alone, an estimated ฿12,000–฿20,000 a month from public listings, already covers far more hours than a part-timer. But the true cost is higher than the salary, because a live-in arrangement adds a private room, food, and a share of utilities. None of these can be subtracted from the wage (see the next section). So the honest way to budget a live-in maid is: cash wage at or above the minimum, plus the in-kind cost of housing and feeding another adult.

We label all of these as estimates deliberately. There is no published government survey of domestic-helper market salaries in Thailand, and roughly nine in ten in-home cleaners work informally, so the ranges above are triangulated from agency and expat listings — useful for planning, not precise quotes. For a fuller breakdown by role, nationality, and city, see the Thailand Domestic Helper Salary Atlas 2026.

The law applies to both — and it changed in 2024

This is the part that surprises most Bangkok employers, Thai and foreign alike. There is no longer a separate, lighter rulebook for domestic workers, and no exemption for live-in staff.

MR 15 is a ministerial regulation, a piece of subordinate legislation issued by the Minister of Labour under the Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998). Ministerial Regulation No. 15 (B.E. 2567) was published and took effect on 30 April 2024, replacing the older MR 14 of 2012. It extended core labour protections to people doing household work that is not part of a business: cleaners, cooks, carers, drivers, and household security guards. Full detail is in our MR 15 explainer.

What that means for you as an employer, whether your maid lives in or comes by day:

• Minimum wage now applies. Before MR 15, domestic workers were excluded from the statutory minimum. Since 30 April 2024 they are covered, at the provincial rate where they work. In Bangkok that is ฿400 per day, in force since 1 July 2025. See our Thailand minimum wage 2026 page for the full province table.
• At least one full paid rest day a week, with no more than six days between rest days.
• At least 13 paid public holidays a year, including National Labour Day on 1 May.
• At least 6 paid annual-leave days a year, available after one full continuous year of work.
• Up to 30 paid sick days a year; a medical certificate may be required for three or more consecutive days.
• A written contract and the standard termination terms — one wage-cycle notice, final pay within three days of the last working day.

None of these carry a "live-in" exception. If anything, a live-in arrangement makes the rest day and the working-hour boundaries harder to honour, because the worker is always physically present. That is a management problem to plan for, not a legal loophole.

You cannot charge a live-in maid for her room and board

This is the single most common mistake in live-in arrangements, so it gets its own section. The cash wage must meet the provincial minimum on its own. You cannot pay below ฿400/day in Bangkok and call the difference "room and food."

MR 15 permits wage deductions only in five narrow categories — provident fund, income tax, debts that benefit the worker, damage from a wilful act or gross negligence, and union dues — each capped at 10% of salary and 20% in total per payment. Accommodation and meals are not on that list. So the correct way to think about a live-in maid's housing and food is as a cost you carry on top of a full, lawful wage, never as a deduction from it.

Live-in: the accommodation and food questions to settle first

Before you choose live-in, be honest about whether your home can support it:

• A genuine private room. Not a converted storeroom, not a shared space. A live-in worker needs somewhere with a door that is hers. In a condo, this often rules live-in out; in a villa or larger home, it is straightforward.
• Meals. Decide what you provide and budget for it as a real cost. Vague arrangements about food are a frequent source of friction.
• Off-hours boundaries. Because she lives where she works, the rest day and daily off-hours need to be explicit and respected. Turnover in Bangkok tracks rest-day reliability more closely than salary.
• Privacy, yours and hers. Another adult living in your home is the biggest non-financial cost of the live-in model. For some households that is a comfortable trade; for others it is the dealbreaker.

Who each arrangement suits

Strip away the salary noise and it comes down to three questions: how much space you have, how much cover you need, and how much privacy you are willing to trade.

• Choose a part-time day maid if you live in a condo or smaller home, your needs are predictable and daytime, your budget is tight or variable, and you value keeping the household to yourself.
• Choose a full-time day maid (live-out) if you need substantial daily help but either lack a spare room or prefer your evenings private. This is the most under-rated middle option.
• Choose a live-in maid if you have a genuine private room to offer and you need cover across the day — young children, an elderly relative, long or irregular working hours, or a larger home that needs continuous attention.

Whichever you choose, the two non-negotiables are the same: an MR 15-compliant written contract and a lawful wage at or above the ฿400/day Bangkok minimum. If you are starting from scratch, our complete 2026 guide to hiring a maid in Thailand walks through cost, contract, work permit, and the agency-vs-direct decision in order.