To think I should be paid more than the cleaner?

[orangeredpink]

I really dislike my current job so my general annoyance may be U because of that and I'm desperate to leave. I started a few months ago after being made redundant, during the interview I said I wanted £xk salary, they offered £xk-10k, this was a 20k drop in my pre-redundancy salary but I figured any job at the time is better than eating my way through my redundancy payment.

So I went to think it over and in the meantime received another offer for £xk-5k, my now employer wouldn't match the salary, they were adamant they need to keep salaries low for the business sake, but it was supposed to be a better role, no commute, more responsibility etc.

Today, the finance director who sits next to me was talking to someone and mentioned the salary for the cleaner, which works out at over £10 an hour more than I get and pretty much double any rates I've ever seen advertised for cleaners. I was pretty much gobsmacked and the more I think about it the more annoyed I'm getting.

I fully accept I made a mistake when choosing the job, and it was severely mis-sold however the salary issue is really bugging me. My business function, 10 years of experience, and spending the last few months increasing their revenue and rectifying stupid mistakes they've made because they hire people with no experience and no idea how to train them because none of the management team have worked in the business function I do, to keep their salary costs down, brings far more value to the company than the cleaner. AIBU to think I should be paid more?!

Does the cleaner work full time or do they come in for a few hours a week?

£20-25 ph isn't unheard of for for commercial cleaners around here.

As PP have probably said, I don't think you can compare what a self-employed contractor is paid to a regular salaried employee. They have costs that are probably covered by your employer over and above your salary.

I wouldn't imagine the cleaner works full time.

The cleaner's salary is irrelevant. If you're not happy with your pay, negotiate a pay rise or look for another job.

Actually cleaners in not so populous areas can probably command very good hourly rates. Travel time between jobs must be enormous, the job is physically hard and injury-prone as well as not highly respected by many. If you are in central London, plenty of people are willing to do it. In a leafy village it must be much harder to recruit.

Actually cleaners in not so populous areas can probably command very good hourly rates. Travel time between jobs must be enormous

Yep, if the cleaner is doing, say an a hour a day at four different offices with 30 minutes travel in between each, plus transport costs, that £25 per hour looks much less appealing, especially when there's no sick pay, holiday pay or pension.

OP, you are a salaried employee, with benefits that she doesn't get and get regular hours. If you can't understand the difference between that an self-employed person charging for a job, I would suggest that you are massively over-estimating your own talents and if anything are being over-paid in your current role.

Of course you should be paid more.

£20-25 ph isn't unheard of for for commercial cleaners around here

For a 36 hour week?

Of course you should be paid more
The OP gets paid more than me and my job is harder than hers.

Lots and lots of people are better paid than I am. I took the job knowing the pay was terrible. If you do that you can put together a case for a pay review and/or suck it up and get on with it.

Or leave.

The OP hates her job so its a good idea for her to look elsewhere. Its one thing being in a job you love and knowing you are underpaid, its another being in one you hate.

Life is too short.

The cleaners salary is irrelevant. You don't feel your salary is correct for your job/level of experience. Either you talk to your employer's about a significant pay rise (without mentioning the cleaner and based purely on your importance to the business) or you find another job that pays better. Leaving soon after starting a new job isn't a bad thing when that job has lied to you during the hiring process. If you explain this (if asked) during future interviews it doesn't have to look bad on you.

£10 ph MORE than you? I don't know anywhere where cleaners earn more than £10 ph. All minimum wage round here. Resign immediately and apply for job as a cleaner.

I own a recruitment business, and as your friends in recruitment have said, you can leave and getting a job paying you the market rate. I know it's not great to leave a role after a short time but they have lied and misled you about the job role, and clearly don't value you as an employee. They maybe paying you your salary as you didn't negotiate and they basically can, and you're still there, doing the job, being underpaid and they're quite happy paying you your £15 p/h!
The issue isn't the cleaners salary (although I think £25 p/h is really high) it's that you don't feel you're being paid what you should be, and in that case YOU are the only one who can change that. Tell them you want a salary review (and take examples of how you've saved the business money, added value etc) or leave. You have choices, so be proactive and make them.

I would be a bit peeved if I was you too, but like everyone says, put all your efforts into finding a new job and move on. Luckily it isn't your dream job so you don't have any emotional attachment to it. When you resign, I would explain why you felt under valued and under paid, but leave the cleaner's salary out of it as that isn't really relevant and you don't know the background.

Well if u want to earn £10 an hour, set yourself up as a cleaner, but believe me it's hard job cleaning up after other people, I did it when my kids were small and at nursery and believe me my clients got there pound of flesh. I always think it's better to not dwell on how much other people earn as you just get all upset and downhearted, instead look at the other positives in your life like family friends and health

If you was off work for a week I'm sure your office would survive without you, it might be a struggle, but office life would go on.

If the cleaner didn't turn up for a week, your office would be shut down as unsafe. Overflowing bins, dirty toilets, confidential waste bags building up etc.

Do you really think your cleaner should be on minimum wage when she probably cleans the toilets and wash basins, kitchen area and deals with the bins and rubbish?

Maybe you should have gone for the cleaners job, would you have been happier having a shitty job for good money?

My cleaner charges £11 a hour (hour cleaner). I don't resent it one bit. It's hard work being a cleaner.
I think the issue here is that the company lied to you about the job. That'd annoy me more.

*house not hour!

Can't you ask for a new job -as a cleaner (I joke of course)...

Are you sure it's not a rate for a team of cleaners? Often cleaners work in teams of 2-3.

Sounds like it's probably agency cleaner with their cut rather than what she comes out with

Most office workers should earn more than the office cleaner, that goes without saying. Office work requires accuracy, analytical skills and so on. If the cleaner misses someone's bin, or forgets to vacuum under your desk, it's hardly the end of the world - certainly not in comparison to making a mistake on pricing, sending confidential information to the wrong person, and so on. When a cleaner messes up (pardon the pun), it's not a disaster - when an actual office worker messes up, it may well be.

Ultimately though your choice is to put up with your situation or do something about it. There are plenty of decent companies out there who will pay you an appropriate salary - certainly more than they pay their cleaners!

I do wish MNers wouldn't do the "less per hour than a cleaner" thing. It's utterly ludicrous to compare a full time salary with holiday pay, pension contributions, and sick leave to a self-employed job that's done one or two hours at a time in drinks and drabs with huge travelling costs between jobs..

THIS!

It sounds like they advertised the job fraudulently, so talk to ACAS.

Cleaners work bloody hard doing tedious, sometimes grotesque PHYSICAL work. Of course they're going to be paid more!
They don't work full time though