With their wallets bulging, more and more wealthy Shanghai families are hiring Philippine maids to speak English with the kids, despite an official ban on hiring foreign workers.

Some rich Shanghaiese are willing to pay 6,000 yuan (750 U.S. dollars) a month to hire a Philippine servant with a college education background, much higher than the average salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan (375 to 500 dollars) that most Philippine servants can get.

In comparison, a Chinese servant generally gets no more than 1,500 yuan (187.5 dollars) a month.

A major reason for the burgeoning demand for the Filipinos is that they can speak English with the children at home.

But the market is still outlawed by government regulations. According to the Shanghai labor and social security bureau, individuals and families are not allowed to hire foreign laborers.

The bureau has launched a month-long inspection campaign into the employment of foreigners and people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to stamp out irregularities.

But with more and more foreigners, corporate management personnel and professionals coming in, the market is too lucrative to be overlooked by homemaking companies.

Official statistics show that over 50,000 foreigners and nearly 20,000 people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are currently working in Shanghai.

Insiders estimate that there is a demand for around 4,000 to 5,000 Philippine maids in Shanghai and at least 2,000 such servants are already working.

60 percent of them were brought to the mainland by their employers, while the other 40 percent have been introduced by Shanghai's homemaking companies, which import Filipinos ostensibly as foreign teachers for private schools and kindergartens.

Xia Jun, head of the Shanghai Jialilai Homemaking Co., hoped the government would relax its market controls which forced his company to abort a plan to introduce Filipinos three years ago.

"We cannot employ Filipinos, so we can only train Chinese to have the same qualifications as a Filipino servant, including their ability to speak English and provide housemaking services."

To meet market demand, the company now hires English teachers from less developed central and western regions, but Xia hoped the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai World Expo would prompt the authorities to loosen policy controls.