Domestic helpers willing to take a pay cut will be showcased today by Provisional Urban Councillor Jennifer Chow Kit-bing, who wants maids' wages cut by 20 per cent. About 10 domestic helpers have agreed to tell reporters they back a reduced salary in order to keep their jobs, Mrs Chow's assistant, Denise Chan Fu-yee, said yesterday. In September, Mrs Chow suggested maids' pay be cut from $3,860 a month to $3,088. She claimed many middle-class families had suffered pay cuts in the economic downturn and could not afford to pay the current minimum wage. She said maids also wanted this because many of them had had their contracts terminated by employers who could no longer afford them. Nina Sevano, 33, one of the maids agreeing to speak at the press conference, said: 'It doesn't matter if they cut the salary by 20 per cent. It's enough for us to support our families in the Philippines. The peso has devalued. 'The reduced pay would equal about 15,000 pesos, and the average worker in the Philippines makes only 5,000 pesos. 'Some maids don't want the salary cut because they're paying for telephone bills in Hong Kong and they want to buy expensive clothes.' But domestic helpers' unionists have attacked Mrs Chow's proposal previously, saying maids are already overworked and underpaid. They also argued a lower minimum wage would create even lower black market wages. Most of the maids willing to support Mrs Chow's idea simply wanted a job. Fe Marquez, 50, said she had been unemployed for more than two years, doing only part-time cleaning and cooking. She had to support six children and a husband. 'I need a job. I'm very much willing to work for lower wages,' she said.