Current and recent wages Expat and Locals

Sosua
Housekeeper  9,000 -12,000 RD
Gardener    8500-1200 RD
Day labor $500
Plumber  200 or so per hour
As for local Expat working it will depend.  We have an electrician that runs about $300 and hour depending on complexity of the situation.

Bob K

How many dominican pesos for 1 dollar?

When I was there in June-July it fluctuated 1 dollar equal 45pesos some days was 46 pesos what you can buy for a dollar depends on what area you in I brought 2 bottals of water at some stops for 1 dollar and other was 1 dollar for 1 water. mango every morning about 25 pesos so every thing you see in RD pesos just divide by 45 to give you a good estimate of things

Currently it's 45.8 pesos to an American dollar.

Messenger for a company - 9,000 rd plus gas

Actually now posted at 46 at Caribe tours

Bob K

There you go!!!

Just curiosity, how much make the people who work in software, IT, web-design, servers maintenance and things related ? I was offered an expat job in Mexico-city a couple of months ago but I didn't want to go (for life quality reasons, and very diffrent from RD).

That is all over in terms of range. Will depend on size of company, credentials, if company is local or offshore etc etc. Sorry it's really hard to say.

As a follow up on local wages we just had our Swiss plumber out to inspect our cistern (we have roots growing though the walls, emptied, cleaned and checked our water tank (Pressure tank for the household water).  He was on site for over an hour and a half.  Cost....500 pesos.

Bob K

Wow great deal!!!

I had a look at APALGA website. There are currently 122 job offers in Computer maintenance and Software which range from 15 to 40.000 pesos monthly. That is a great wage for many Dominicans but still low for an expat's living standards.

Other jobs which seem to pay good money (for local standards) are Accounts/Audit/Finance specialists.

There is no secret, the higher qualifications and english spoken, the better chances to access to higher range paying jobs.

And for expats you will need Spanish!

And Residencia. Most of offers explicitly say that the applicant must be DR resident.

The gov`t has cracked down on illegal employees. Almost no one will hire you if you have no cedula. No residencia = no cedula = no work.

Very few employers will sponsor work visas!

Even some of the local restaurants are requiring a cedula to work.

Bottom line if you want a job here you need  your residency.

Bob K

Spare a thought for us poor Brits, suspect many people here have been hit hard by the collapse of the pound recently after the idiots decided to leave the European Union, talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
Since then pound has dropped like a stone. Of course the trouble with currency fluctuation is not just one thing costs you more, but everything you buy, everything you do, rent , etc is costing a lot more, so this has severely affected standard of living.
Seems the British are never satisfied, for years we were bitching and moaning trying to get in the European Union, once we were finally in it we wanted special treatment all the time and and suddenly we decided, no we don't want to play any more, good bye.
I suspect the Europeans are glad to see the back of us.
Anyway not much to be done about it, unfortunately I can see this bad situation lasting for a long time, eventually the pound may recover, but only time will tell.
In the meantime its batten down the hatches and get used to a lower standard of living...
First casualty, real Scottish whiskey, looks like a downgrade to local hooch... Ain't life a bitch?