axlenoyl

Maybe a dumb question but looking on the various sites for nursing/midwife jobs the monthly salaries are in the region of 2000Dhs surely no one works for that, are these salaries shown plus allowances.

jvr20

There are many who travel thousands of miles to the Gulf to work for such salaries, from countries where that works out to a princely sum.

axlenoyl

might be a pricey sum to some backward countries, shame on the arabs for exploiting them, but the cost of living is still horendous, no matter how frugal how on earth do they live.

Madam Medusa

staff accomodation i assume...and they probably save enough to send money back...it's how the (more than) other half live here, i'm afraid...

MM, xx

axlenoyl

Lady of leisure I will be then

seven seas

I wouldn't lose sleep over it. The guy who does my cleaning has just bought a farm 'back home' . I'm happy to have helped him achieve this dream.

AED 20000 is more than a nurse earns in outer London. So unless that is considered a backward country...

Shame on the arabs? I assume from your outrage that you want no part of this exploitative system....?

Or is it OK for you to benefit from low-cost goods and services, but not other people?

lionheart

Please read more carefully...you seem to have added an extra zero.

seven seas

LOL you're right....

jvr20

room sharing in cheap parts of town: my studio (2000/month) could be shared by 4 men in some parts of Sharjah.

taking buses to work: fare = 1.50 dhs (where available: no buses within Sharjah for example, except for buses into Bur Dubai - fare is 5.00)

working long hours: including Fridays, judging by the construction work outside my flat

not spending much on entertainment and eating cheaply: I sometimes have lunch for 4.00 dhs, more often splurge for 7.50! (cf. 30 for a pizza and fruit milkshake at an upmarket Sharjah bakery, or 149 for a 5* hotel buffet on SZR Dubai)

Bonny Boy

Yes, there is certainly a two speed economy here - it's just that the Dubai marketing machine focuses on the top end of things, so the bottom end goes un-remarked and hidden.

Shared low cost apartments and cheap eateries are all here if you look.

Dubai presents a first world face to the world; but it is based on developing world standards and wages - particularly so in my sector, construction.

As some sort of defence, workers from the developing countries are getting a bigger mark up in their earnings, compared with the possibilities at home, than western expats are.

I think very few come here with unrealistic expectations given the well worn footpath to the Gulf over the decades.

jvr20

True... in that sense, the Dubai machine itself isn't exploitative (at least, no more than a classic Smithian invisible-hand type model of the worl) but there is exploitation at the level of the middlemen who get involved and take their cut from the worst off. It's the stories of stolen passports, non-existant jobs and unpaid wages (as opposed to 'poor' wages) that give the lie.

On the other hand isn't it the case that nowadays with the weak dollar and strong rupee, peso, whatever, that the draw of higher earnings isn't so great? When this finally hits the construction industry, who will finish all the new projects...?

Bonny Boy

In deed; also, as India begins to develop, there is a real worry for this region than many people in the manual jobs will stay at home.

I think yor figures in the earlier post were interesting, - say you earn Dh 2,000/Mo.

Ball park: Shared accomm at Dh 500/Mo; food at Dh 500/Mo - send home Dh 1000/Mo. That's approx USD 300 - ie USD 10/day; and much of the world subsists on USD 2/day or less - so it is a good mark up. I'm just observing here, not approving by any means.

shakh your bootie

There's always Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Afghanistan etc etc to recruit from for manual labor... The real issue is low cost labor with a reasonable tertiary education.

axlenoyl

Will just have to get used to being a kept women, not getting out of bed for those salaries to mop up puke and shit, there is enough paid in insurances to give nurses a reasonable wage not even a good one and 2000dhs is nowere near reasonable, you pay peanuts you get monkeys is the saying that comes to mind.

Eeyore

Depending on the job, peanuts in Dubai buys you well-trained staff from the Indian subcontinent or the Philippines who would be paid less than peanuts in their native countries.