Domestic help is normal in Accra across a much wider range of households than in Europe or North America — not only among the wealthy. Cleaners, nannies, cooks, gardeners, drivers and security men are ordinary parts of middle-class Ghanaian life.
It is also an area where people are routinely underpaid, worked without limit, and dismissed without notice. Doing it properly costs a little more and is not complicated.
What people are paid
Live-out domestic help in Accra typically earns roughly ₵800 to ₵2,500 a month, depending on hours, experience, duties and whether childcare is involved. Experienced nannies and cooks are at the upper end and beyond.
Live-in arrangements are often paid less in cash because accommodation and food are provided — which is exactly where exploitation tends to live, since “live-in” easily becomes “always available”.
The floor is the law. The National Daily Minimum Wage is ₵19.97 a day. Anything below that is unlawful, whatever the arrangement.
The law applies
This surprises people: domestic workers are workers. The Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) does not carve them out.
That means:
- Maximum 40 ordinary hours a week, and rest periods
- At least 15 working days of paid annual leave after a year
- 12 weeks paid maternity leave
- Notice on termination — not “do not come tomorrow”
- A written contract for engagements of six months or more
Ghana has also ratified ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers.
SSNIT
If you employ someone, you are an employer. Registering a domestic worker for SSNIT — 5.5% from them, 13% from you — is what the law contemplates and almost nobody does.
It is the single most valuable thing you can do for someone who will otherwise reach sixty with no pension at all. It costs you 13% of a modest wage.
Finding someone
Personal recommendation is how it is almost always done, and it is the best route. Ask neighbours, colleagues, your church or mosque, your landlord.
Agencies exist in Accra, particularly for nannies and for expatriate households. They charge a placement fee and do some screening. Ask exactly what screening.
Referrals from someone leaving. When an expatriate family departs, their staff need work and arrive with a genuine reference.
Never hire off the street for a live-in role.
Doing it properly
- Write it down. Duties, days, hours, wage, pay date, leave, notice. One page is enough. Both sign it, both keep a copy.
- Agree the hours, and keep to them. “Finish at 5” must mean 5.
- Pay on time, every time. This matters more than the amount.
- Pay by mobile money where you can. It creates a record for both of you. — Mobile money
- Take copies of ID — the Ghana Card — and take references, and actually call them.
- Agree what is provided: food, transport, uniform, a phone.
- Discuss NHIS. Help them register if they have not. — NHIS
- Agree leave, including how the Christmas and Easter travel home works. Almost everyone travels.
Children working in homes is not rare, and it is not acceptable
Sending a child from a village to work in a city household is a persistent practice in Ghana, often framed as fostering and education. Employing a child of school age as domestic help is child labour under Ghanaian law. Do not participate in it, however it is presented to you.
Living well together
Be clear rather than kind-then-resentful. Most disputes come from expectations that were never said out loud.
Do not treat the house as a test. Counting things and setting traps poisons a relationship you depend on.
Respect their time. They have a family, a commute across Accra, and a life.
Expect requests for advances and loans. Common, and worth deciding your policy in advance rather than case by case. Writing down what is lent and what is repaid protects both of you.
Pay something at Christmas. A thirteenth-month payment or a bonus is customary and expected.
Ending it
Give notice. Pay what is owed, including accrued leave. Write a reference — it is the thing that gets them their next job, and it costs you ten minutes.