http://latinamericacurrentevents.com/minimum-wage-ecuador-increases-january-1-2010/
The Ecuadorian government on Friday passed a new minimum wage to begin January 1, 2011. The current wage of 240 a month is to be raised to 264.00. This will include domestics.
As many of you know if you have domestics working for you - you are required to contribute to the employees social security account. Correa has taken this very seriously trying to bring all workers into the system.
Some expatriates may decide to hire someone and pay their employees under the table. This may work for you but there is a risk of running into trouble. Labor laws are very strict in Ecuador and workers do maintain a great deal of power. If an employee becomes upset at you and decides to turn you in - which can and does happen, you will find yourself learning about Ecuadorian law and culture very quickly.
There was a very good post about this topic on the Yahoo expatriate group recently.
Also, the basic basket for a family of four is stated as 542.00 a month.
