re: #50 Uncle Obdicut

It would actually be nearly impossible for the maid’s story not to be true, for the simple reason that this person didn’t make enough money to pay her the promised wage.

According to Time Khobragade made approximately $6,500 per month. However the Indian government’s estimate for the cost of a housekeeper is ridiculously high.

The Indian diplomatic corps has come to Khobragade’s defense, saying that her salary of approximately $6,500 a month would not have allowed her to hire a housekeeper on the U.S. minimum wage — about $4,500 a month.

The $9.75 / hr promised salary would have cost her x40hrs x4 weeks = $1560 / month plus 6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare = 1679.34 / month.. That would have left Khobragade $4820 per month. The Indian government is just lying about the cost she faced. In any event if she couldn’t afford to pay her maid the minimum wage the answer obviously isn’t to falsify a visa and break employment law to get one, the answer is to do what millions of struggling New Yorkers do, their own housework.

Finally, that $4,820 she would have had leftover does sound like tight when you consider NY cost of living, however her husband is reportedly employed as a professor of philosophy, so her salary should not have been the only contribution to the household budget.