Have I been miserly with our cleaner?

Sounds good to me.

I doubt she was genuinely suggesting she cleans your house on Christmas Day and New Years Day.

Unfortunately she did want to work those days! Last week I asked her when was she free to come this week as the normal day is Wednesday and she said she could come Christmas Day Wednesday.

I understand they are on a low wage and happy to give her hours to make up for lost work. She's hard working but isn't a great cleaner and as slow as a snail so I don't feel compelled to give bonus / holiday pay. She's been with me for 3 months only.

Our cleaner comes on a Wednesday normally, every two weeks. This year, therefore, she was going to hit one of the bank holidays (New Year's Day in this case). She's managed to swap us onto another day instead, which was perfect, but if she couldn't, we'd have gone without and she wouldn't have expected to be paid. That's the risk of self-employment. You don't get paid for days you don't work. DH is self-employed and won't be paid for this week or next week because the company he contracts for is closed.

We have a cleaner every two weeks and I give her a gift card with the same amount as we'd otherwise pay her as a gift, plus a box of biscuits or chocolates or candles.

I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're giving OP. As you've already discovered, she's not getting anything from your friend. There are other clients that may give her more, but you've given her something and it's not inconsequential, so I'm sure she'll be pleased.

I agree with your DH. You should be paying her for Thursday anyway. So she’s received a £20 Christmas bonus. If that’s the level you want to give then fine, but if you wanted to give a £68 bonus then you need to give her an extra £48.

I tend to give a week’s bonus to my cleaner on top of what she would normally have earned that week if it wasn’t Christmas.

I doubt she was genuinely suggesting she cleans your house on Christmas Day and New Years Day.

Much more likely that she was making the point that it’s you cancelling and therefore you should still be paying her for those days.

It must be really hard for low paid people to lose entire days wages when Christmas is midweek.

i would do a week’s extra wages.

I give our cleaner a week’s extra wages at Xmas

Its 25%

So you are happy with a £20 bonus for the whole year when her weekly pay is £80? I think that’s very low. I would also argue that is you can afford £80 a week for cleaning you can afford a bit more.

Most cleaners aren’t exactly millionaires.

I gave ours a month's money and a bottle of fizz. She's been with us for ages though and does a great job.

I think it's good OP.

We did £20, a candle and a gift for her daughter (doll and sweets).

We did £50 last year but money is much tighter this year.

I'm not against tipping /bonus etc but there are at least two posters saying £500!
Really?

I imagine you're charging far more than £16/hour in general though.

The point is tipping/giving bonuses to people who are on a lower (self-employed) income.

And how much do you normally tip at the nail salon, £1?

If he's claiming it's tight then he can put his hand in his wallet. I think that sounds perfectly reasonable. But he's more than welcome to sling him/her another 50 if he's feeling flush? I guess maybe he makes more mess than you do so it makes sense he wants to give them more? 🤣

Mine comes every alternate Friday for 3 hours. She's coming on 27th. I bought her a present and gave her an extra £20 for Christmas.
I think what you gave was fine.

Mine comes twice a week.
But she goes above and beyond for me.
Always helping in other ways ( I'm disabled but no caring).
I gave her £500 last week and some shopping vouchers.

Here we go
These threads are often on a par with how much do people give for a wedding.
I'm self employed. If i don't work i don't get paid. No one pays me a christmas bonus. I don't expect it at all.

I've had a few nice little gifts, I'm a tutor and that's very kid of them but the kids are off for about two weeks and no one is paying me for lessons I'm not doing.
I've just been to the nail salon, i gave a bit bigger tip than usual but we're talking a few quid.
Posters on here seem to have an endless pot of money to give away

I gave my cleaner a bottle of wine.

She comes Wednesdays which this year is christmas Day and New Years Day. She asked to work these days! I said no but I'd give her extra hours in January.

She's OK, not amazing hence I was a bit tight with her.

I’d be giving her notice.

Im now wondering if I was a bit tight with our cleaners. We have 3 people round for an hour rather than one for 3 hours. I gave them each £20.

Any bonus or tip is just that, a bonus. Not everyone can afford to go over and above so I think it’s lovely what you’ve given her.

I gave my cleaner and extra 500 and she didn’t even say thanks 🤷‍♀️

Why on earth would a Postie get a bonus?

I don’t even know who my postie is, I wouldn’t give them anything.

I’m giving the refuse collectors chocolates because they go above and beyond, as well as my mechanic but that’s it.