What a Kasambahay Legally Costs in Davao in 2026

The headline is that the kasambahay wage went up. The quieter and more consequential news is that it went up past a threshold. The Region XI minimum for a domestic worker is now ₱6,500 a month, and that number crosses a line drawn in 2013 and never moved since — the point in the Batas Kasambahay where the household stops carrying the worker’s social contributions alone and the worker starts paying a share. If you employ a kasambahay in Davao, that is the change that alters your monthly arithmetic, and almost no guide mentions it.

The wage, exactly

The instrument is Wage Order No. RB XI-DW-04. It was approved on 19 February 2026, took effect on 13 March 2026, and sets a single monthly minimum of ₱6,500 for domestic workers across the whole of Region XI, Davao City included. It did two things at once. It raised the rate, and it collapsed the old split between chartered cities and outlying municipalities into one figure — the two prior tiers converge on ₱6,500 from different starting points.

There is no exemption to apply for. The order is explicit that none is allowed.

Who it covers is worth pinning down, because the edges are where the errors live. A general househelp, a yaya, a cook, a gardener and a laundry person are all covered. A family driver is not — a driver is a private-sector worker under a different Region XI order entirely. That is an easy trap, because both wage orders happen to take effect on the very same day, 13 March 2026. They are two separate instruments for two separate kinds of worker, and the private-sector minimum wage is the one that governs the driver.

The ₱5,000 line, which is the real story

Here is the provision that does the work. Section 30 of the Batas Kasambahay says a domestic worker who has served at least a month is covered by SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, and that the premiums “shall be shouldered by the employer.” Then comes the qualifier: “However, if the domestic worker is receiving a wage of Five thousand pesos (₱5,000.00) and above per month, the domestic worker shall pay the proportionate share in the premium payments or contributions, as provided by law.”

Read that against a ₱6,500 wage and the consequence is plain. The minimum is now firmly above ₱5,000, so the worker pays a proportionate share of the contributions. That is the shift. The employer still remits everything to the agencies — that duty does not move — but part of it now comes out of the wage rather than out of the employer’s pocket on top of it.

What that share is in pesos is where honesty has to take over from precision. SSS coverage of a kasambahay is compulsory by statute, and the contribution is split between employer and worker on a bracket table — but the SSS publishes that table as an image its own page renders through a script, and no primary version could be read, so this guide will not print a peso figure for it. PhilHealth is more tractable in shape if not in its 2026 rate: its premium is computed on an income floor of ₱10,000, which is above a ₱6,500 wage, so the contribution is calculated on ₱10,000 rather than on what the worker actually earns, and it is split between the two parties. Pag-IBIG coverage is likewise mandatory, and the law bars the employer from ever recovering its own share from the worker’s pay. For the exact current pesos, the SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG contribution tables are the only reliable source, and they move on their own schedules.

What a kasambahay costs beyond the wage

Start with what is fixed. Twelve months at ₱6,500 is ₱78,000 a year, and the mandatory 13th month brings that to ₱84,500 before anything else is counted. That is a floor, not a budget. On top of it sit the employer’s share of the contributions and the cost of board and lodging, both real and neither optional. The monthly rate is only the visible cost. The law attaches several more, and together they are the honest answer to “what does a kasambahay actually cost”.

Two of those deserve a second look because they are the ones households skip. The written contract under Section 11 is not a formality you can do later — it must exist before the work begins, and it must be in a language the worker actually understands. And the registration under Section 17 is the employer’s duty, not the worker’s: you register your kasambahay at your own barangay. Neither costs much money, but both are legal obligations with the same ₱10,000-to-₱40,000 penalty behind the whole Act.

Where the numbers run out

It is worth being clear about what this guide does not give you, because the gaps are real. The exact SSS bracket for a ₱6,500 wage, the current Pag-IBIG contribution, and PhilHealth’s 2026 premium rate could not be confirmed from a primary source — the agencies render those tables through scripts or behind pages that would not open. The implementing rules of the Batas Kasambahay were also unreachable. So this guide states the structure the law sets — who is covered, who now deducts, what the employer owes beyond the wage — and sends you to the three agencies’ own contribution tables for the pesos, rather than printing a figure it could not stand behind.