To think what we pay the cleaner is none of this woman's business!

[Silverst0rm]

Someone I know from the school recommended the cleaner she has to me as the lady was looking for more hours and our previous cleaner had left. When the lady came for the "interview", there must have been some misunderstanding because of the language barrier, so she came on a day I was actually out. DH was home, but he doesn't really know what's going on. So he said she could do 10 hours per week (he was right there as that was what the last cleaner did). When he asked her how much per hour, she said £12.50, but DH apparently said we might as well round it up to £15 because it's easier to work in round numbers.

Anyway she's been coming for a few weeks now and she's lovely, so all good.

Just now, I bumped into the friend in the shop and she just started on me - what am I "playing at", etc. At first I thought she was joking, but no she wasn't. She said I have messed up her arrangement with no consultation because now the cleaning lady wants £15 per hour from her and she only gives her £11.50!

WIBU? I can see it might be a bit irritating, but was there any need to be rude to me in a shop over something like this?

I think it's lovely of your DH to 'round it up'. A million times more decent than the many people trying to underpay.

Also decorators charge double that and nobody bats an eyelid.

DH can add up usually but I think he just thought he was adding a bit on for travel etc. Plus she is a slightly older woman with kids.

Baffled as why £15 is easier to calculate than £12.50 though with these things called calculators.
I'd be baffled as to why anyone might need a calculator to work out £12.50 x 10 !"

The point I was making is that the sum is irrelevant if you use a calculator so the argument that £15 x X is easier than £12.50 x X is moot.

Yanbu op to pay your cleaner whatever you agree to, I do think it's cheeky for the cleaner to suddenly change the goal posts with other clients unless she is willing to accept that it doesn't work for the client and may lose business because of it.
Your friend shouldn't be blaming you though, it's between her and the cleaner.

If you are an established cleaner new clients find you rather than you find them so might be worth it for her in the long run.

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I personally wouldn't spend £450 on a pair of swimming shorts but a poster on here did just that the other day.

If you can afford to pay £15 for her cleaning services then so be it.

Ignore the woman and get on with life.

Entirely up to you what rate you pay your cleaner. Well done for paying such a decent rate I say. I can see how your friend might be annoyed about the cleaner's request to match your rate but tbh that's for her to negotiate with the cleaner, not have a go at you.

Lots of people mentioning equipment and cleaning products being included in the hourly rate. Is that really a thing? My cleaner uses my vacuum cleaner for example, and my cleaning products.

Lenny1980 My cleaner uses our hoover but brings her own products, cloths, mop etc.

Decorators are skilled. Have you tried hanging wallpaper or cutting in paint to a customer's critical eye?

Some people are better than others at cleaning - but basically, anyone can clean.

No disrespect to cleaners, I've done it. But decorating is not a good comparison - it's skilled work and decent brushes cost a lot more than decent mops!

Cleaning is unskilled labour

No it isn't. It's a gift.

Unskilled doesn't necessarily mean easy or crap.
It just means you don't need any kind of special or advanced training, certification or qualifications. So yes it is unskilled.
I'd still be happy to pay £15 an hour, though and do pay roughly the equivalent of £26ph (I'm overseas though)

I was going to say it sounds expensive to me, qualified nurses don't earn that much!

Then realised I paid my old dog walker £8.50 for 30 mins which I guess is an hourly rate of £17!

I can see why your friend is annoyed. Maybe she thinks you and your husband are being flash with the cash?

The cleaner is self employed..Will need to manage her accounts get from job to job etc. It is quite unusual to have so many hours in one house.

Why do people wind themselves up about people getting fair pay for a pretty tough job.

Self employed = no holiday or sick pay so general charge more. My dp is a carpenter and on site expects £15-£18 ph. For domestic work he charges £25 per hour not enough

Saying that I live in the south east and I doubt I could charge £15ph for cleaning.

I think the cleaner is opportunistic in changing the rates with your friend. They had an agreement and the cleaner is changing it.

I would be wary of her.

I'm sure the DH was perfectly able to add up.

He was being a responsible employer offering £15.

If it makes you feel any better I pay a cleaning firm around £23/hour nominal rate.

£15 an hour I pay out cleaner £10 and that's Zone 2 in London!

Taking into account holidays, and assuming that 20% of her day is spent travelling between clients, and she spends £100/month on the costs of running her business (travel, materials etc), and assuming she has 30 days off each year to include all leave, bank holidays and a few days sick, she'd be earning the full time equivalent of £20k, which is just over £10/hr for a salaried job, so a decent rate for a cleaner but not excessive imo.

However I still think the logic of rounding up to £15/hr from £12.50/hr to make the maths easier very odd indeed.

Can i apply for the £40 a day cat sitter role?

Free market innit? The cleaner charges what the local market will bear. Your maths dodging, generous DH has just increased that. Them's the breaks. Friend isn't entitled to have the local market fixed because she likes paying a cheaper price.

Whether it's wise of the cleaner to ask for an increase from your friend is another point altogether, especially as she does a lot of hours with her and evidently the friend is happy to refer people to her. But that's the cleaner's business decision, surely?

So if 'whatever rate the market supports is the correct rate' then how about childcare workers on minimum wage? Do they only deserve to be paid that?

Sorry for derailing the thread!

And that will teach me to read the thread before posting! In my defence I didn't realise it was three pages long and I usually do read before posting

In your friend's position I'd be pissed off that my intro and your generosity would cost me money!

Yes so would I if my cleaner was happily charging £11.50ph and then suddenly wanted to up it by 30% to £15! And it was down to a favour I'd done for her and you.

I wouldn't approach you in a shop about it but I'd be mighty pissed off if I could no longer afford it or had to cut hours because of it.

I think being as generous as you can be to people who work for you always pays dividends. The cleaner is earning £15 and hour but then she has travel between jobs when she is unable to earn, possibly does not get paid for holiday, sick or pension. Therefore her gross for the year is not unreasonable .

My Agency only charges £12 an hour so I give my cleaner a bonus every month, pay when she does not come (holidays/sickness) and give her a months money at Christmas. She is a very hard working young girl and I see her as a professional just like a gardener or hairdresser.