Paying cleaner for holidays

As a cleaner I get nothing extra. I get a small gift at Christmas and nothing for holidays or if they are sick or away. I do laundry, bed changes , polishing, hoovering, collecting post and even cooking. I carry an enhanced DBS and charge £13 p/h. I would've loved to have a client like yourself.

I'm a cleaner and don't expect any pay when I'm not working although of course it is a lovely thing to do and sounds like you've given it some thought as to why it would be beneficial to her and would be very much appreciated!

We don’t charge our clients when we have to ‘hold’ their space when they’re away.
They don’t pay us anything when we go on holiday.
Do what you want but there isn’t a right or wrong thing to do.
If you pay her now though, she’ll expect it every time she’s away

I pay my cleaner a weeks extra at Xmas. All other days off/ holidays she takes are unpaid unless it's us cancelling. When we're away I pay her and she usually dies a basic clean- so we're away for 2 weeks, I give 2 weeks money, she does a clean and tidy once before we come home.

I would have thought £30 would be generous enough as you're paying her for a week she isn't there.

I think the £60 would be a nice gesture.

FWIW I pay my cleaner when she is goes away to see family, which is 2-3 weeks a year.

From my perspective in our household we are hugely privileged to have full time jobs that enable us to pay someone to clean. We also get paid holiday to enable us to rest-time off is important to us.

I'm not kidding myself that it is always a life choice that someone has ended up in a low paid, unreliable wage job. The cost of living crisis is a particular squeeze for those on irregular incomes.

We are not huge earners but can afford the £30 / week from my own regular wage. I would have paid her if she was here, so withdrawing this so she can take less of a rest than I get in annual leave is not the right thing to do from my perspective.

I might feel different if it was lots and lots but a couple of weeks a year it just seems like the right thing to do

I don’t understand this whole thing of paying self employed people when they don’t provide the service that you are paying for- I’m self employed, no
one ever pays me to not do my job. Surely the whole part and parcel of choosing to be self employed is charging a fee that covers outgoings such as tax, expenses and any annual leave?

I had a cleaner for 15 years. I only paid her when she cleaned - it was fine for her to say she was away abs wouldn’t clean that week. Sometimes she offered for her daughter to clean instead or to come a different day .

When I went away I was happy for her to clean still and and paid or choose to have a few weeks off too if she preferred.

I also got her nice gifts at Christmas and thanked her and treated her with due respect.

The general etiquette is to pay if YOU choose for them not to work but not to pay if THEY choose not to work.

Fgs, I'd put 100 quid in the card and wish her well.

She sounds like a gem.

I pay my cleaner when we go away, but not when she does. If she can't come due to sickness then I'll pay.

Whow! When I was self employed, working in peoples homes and cleaning more intimate things than toilets, it would have been fantastic if ALL my clients paid me 5 weeks of holiday pay each when I was off.😃

Pay her for her holidays (up to an average 4 or 5 weeks a year, not for extended leans obviously).

It’s the decent thing to do.

More important than tipping at Christmas.

This! I would only ever pay my cleaner for hours she has actually cleaned!! Occasionally she cancels on me and less occasionally I cancel on her.

I do give her nice snacks and drinks when she's working, and give her a massive Christmas hamper, with food and alcohol in.

Your cleaner sounds like a dream, she does a lot in 2 hours! I pay my cleaner 4 weeks sick pay / holiday pay a year

I think it’s nice to give her a card and the two weeks pay! If you can afford it, do it! It’s a valuable job and even if they’re self employed giving them a couple of extra paid weeks off as a perk is a nice thing to do.
Good reliable cleaners are hard to find where I am so I absolutely look after ours as well.

I don't have a cleaner but I'm self employed and no one pays me when I go on holiday

Wtf? You've said above that you work as a cleaner - surely it can't be news that some people... have cleaners?

@Viviennemary I too read the OP said 1 weeks pay plus a bonus of £30, then she said its 2 weeks holiday plus a bonus, so £90! 😮

OP- You already DID pay a bonus at Christmas. Having read similar threads so often, it seems most only pay if they themselves are going away, rather than paying if the cleaner decides to go on holiday.

Paying her an additional week is a nice gesture if you're pleased with her and her work

Yep.

I always pay my cleaner when she’s on holiday (£15p/h), because she tends to stay longer than I ask her to and she always wants to catch up time she misses (I tell her not to worry as I’m sure it all works out)

I would...it's a really nice thing to do and she will be loosing money as generally cleaners don't get holiday pay . I give my cleaners a £100 bonus at Christmas and a bottle of champagne....just to say thank you. They are agency so I don't pay any holiday pay, when we go on holiday - but I make sure they are really appreciated...been with me for 3 years and they are brilliant

Nobody I've ever cleaned for has paid me for the holidays. Self employed means you don't get paid.

Every post on Mumsnet that's about cleaners shows how much spare cash everyone has to be worrying about paying the cleaner so much extra.