Broadcast television

There are 7 national and around 15 regional broadcast television channels.  If you’re in Santiago you’re lucky if you can tune in to all 7 national channels, and some smaller towns and rural areas with signal coverage may only receive 1 or 2 channels.  As you’d expect, pay TV penetration is relatively high in Chile.

The vast majority of the programming on broadcast television is in Spanish.  Foreign films tend to be dubbed into Spanish rather than subtitled.  So if you’re looking for international programming and movies with audio in the original language, you’ll need to go with pay TV.

Pay television

Because prices and bundles are constantly changing, any specific plans or offers I post here will be out of date as soon as they’re published.  So do your research: decide what you want and find out who offers it in your area.  Here are lists of basic products and providers, to get you started.

Products

• Analog Cable
• Digital Cable (subscription)
• Digital Cable (prepaid)
• Satellite Television
• Cable Television + other services

Providers

• DirecTV
• Telefónica
• Telmex
• VTR

Tips

• If you’re also going to get phone service and an internet connection, it probably makes the most financial sense to get all three with one provider, so find out which ones offer a “Triple Pack” in your area.
• Some providers offer a secondary audio program (SAP) for certain channels, which transmits the audio track of the content of that channel in the original language.  This is an important feature for English-speaking expat parents, since most of the children’s channels have SAP.  If kids are watching television anyway, this can be an important means of reinforcing their English— for many, their only exposure to the language is at home through one of their parents.  Ojo: In the case of analog cable, your television must have SAP capability.  For digital cable, the decoder (cable box) itself will handle this feature.

So you’ve arrived in Chile and need a bed, and maybe you’ve even brought some sheets with you from abroad.  What should you buy?  What’s a cama americana?  What’s with all the plazas?

Chilean department and bedding stores sell many different size mattresses and even the standard sizes aren’t always so standard.  So break out that tape measure and start your shopping trip by browsing online.

The following table shows the most common bed sizes you’ll find in Chile:

Note that three of the sizes have a length that varies by 10cm.  Because of this it’s a good idea to choose bed, mattress and sheet sizes not just by name, but by the actual dimensions shown on the package or at the store.

After the size, you’ll need to decide whether you want a frame or a box spring.  A frame is simply called a cama, either platform-style or with wooden slats, and you buy a colchón (mattress) to go on top of it.

If you decide on a cama americana that is 2 plazas or larger, and you live in an older apartment or house, find out if the rigid box spring will fit through the doors/up the stairs/through the window.  If not, you will need to buy a box spring that comes in two pieces, called a base dividida.

Where to shop (linkme)

• Department stores
• Rosen (their outlet stores are worth a trip)
• Casa & Ideas (bedclothes only)

Vocab

• almohada pillow
• base box spring base ~ dividida divided base
• box spring usually refers to the mattress/box spring set
• cabecera headboard
• cama bed
• camarote bunk bed
• colcha knit bedspread
• colchón mattress
• colchoneta small, thin mattress made of foam or other light material, can refer to mats used in camping and for floor exercises like yoga
• cuna cradle
• cubrecama bedspread
• cubrecolchón mattress cover
• escaldasonno heating pad
• frazada blanket
• funda cover, as in pillowcase or comforter cover
• futón futon
• moisés bassinet
• plumón comforter, quilt, duvet (de pluma = feather-filled)
• respaldo headboard
• sábana sheet
• sommier mattress support to place in a bed frame, consisting of wooden slats connected by two strips of wood or cloth

This article is specifically about hiring a household employee, such as a housekeeper (trabajadora de casa particular, or nana).  Much of the material is relevant when hiring someone for a business, as well.

Preparation

First, gather information.  You’ll need basic data for the various trámites (linkme) you’ll need to do, and you’ll want to determine if your future employee is a special case for any of them.  Have all of the following information somewhere accessible, since you’ll probably need to refer back to it even after you’ve set everything up.

Steps

1. Prepare and sign a contract.  You don’t need a lawyer for this, though you may wish to consult with one.  Also, it does not need to be signed before a notary public.  You can download a template for a contract for a nana here (at the time of this writing the page has separate templates for Chilean and foreign employees).
2. Start declaring/paying their imposiciones on PreviRed.com at the beginning of each month.  This web site will calculate the payments you need to make, based on information you enter about your employee, and then either generate a printable payment coupon you can take to a payment center such ServiPag (linkme), or connect you to your bank for an online payment.  The alternative to this involves filling out forms in quadruplicate, so I’m not going to even describe it here.*

That’s really all there is to it.  See Terminating an employee (linkme) to find out how the story ends.

Some miscellaneous observations/tips:

• Your nana may ask you to pay her under the table or to declare a lower gross salary than what she really earns, in order to avoid withholding (most nanas don’t make enough to pay income tax) or to increase her benefits in Fonasa (lower income = higher subsidy).  Both of these practices are illegal (linkme), so from one expat with a revocable visa to another, I urge you stand firm and declare the real numbers.
• Keep the contract up to date.  It will give you firmer ground to stand on in the event any legal issues should arise in the future.
• Sadly, though they can be required to work 12 hours per day 6 days per week, minimum wage for nannies/housekeepers is lower than it is for the rest of the workforce (at the time of this writing, it’s at 83%).  This strikes me as so odd, since the women who care for your children are performing arguably the most important work you can pay a person for.  The government has begun to close that gap, and on March 1st, 2011, it will be eliminated.  Fortunately for most of the nanas I know, it’s not an issue, since they’re paid significantly more than the standard minimum.  Hopefully you can afford to do the same.

See also

• Employment and social security concepts (linkme)
• The Trabajadora de Casa Particular section of the Dirección del Trabajo portal, including the Guía de Empleadoras y Trabajadoras de Casa Particular

*Suffice it to say that one month of missed declaration and payment had me waiting on the phone and in lines at the AFP, Fonasa and INP, which may very well be standard operating procedure for those who pay imposiciones the old way.  I will never miss that deadline again.

expat.cl is your guide to expat life in Chile.  Come here first with your questions about banking, signing up for cable TV, buying a bed, renewing your ID, and all those things you’d rather have someone else think about.

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Enjoy!