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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to find a 20% increase in cleaner's fees too much? How much do you pay?

91 replies

applesauce1 · 05/03/2018 17:00

My husband and I are average earners (I'm a non-SLT teacher). We've had a cleaner for about 3 years after I found I couldn't juggle all of the housework with my teaching work, and my husband doesn't get home from work until really late and does what he has time for. He plays sport every weekend and after a day of school work at the weekend, I'd actually like to do some things for myself!

Anyway, our first cleaner was £9/hour. Our new cleaner has been £10/hour. She's asked us to up the rates to £12/hour. I'm desperate to keep her, but we just can't afford the 20% increase when we scale it up to the yearly cost.

What do you pay for your cleaner's hourly rates outside of London? Am I being unreasonable to not stump up an extra £4 a week for someone who makes my life so much better?

I do nursery paintings as a hobby, and did realise that I am selling my paintings for less per hour than I pay the cleaner currently which really highlighted how much the increase meant for us...

OP posts:

Giraffesarequitetall · 05/03/2018 18:53

We pay £10 to an independent but I think she charges new customers more so I am expecting a rate raise request soon.

Original poster

applesauce1 · 05/03/2018 18:57

@ssd sometimes you need calling out on when you come across as an idiot so I genuinely appreciate you pulling me up on that to give me a chance to express myself with (hopefully) more clarity! I put my foot in my mouth and now I'm extracting it!!

Love the idea of fortnightly! I'll ask the cleaner if that's acceptable for her. DH has suggested I make some last minute Mother's Day and congratulations on the birth of... cards and order them as prints which will save me time and possibly help to pay for my angel of a cleaner.

Side note: I can't believe how desperate I was to grow up when I was a teenager. Being an adult has been far more bother than I ever could have anticipated.

OP posts:

mintich · 05/03/2018 18:58

£10 per hour Essex

ssd · 05/03/2018 19:41

yes, fortnightly is better than nothing! maybe ask her for tips about the best way to keep the place tidy and clean the week she isn't there? she would probably be glad to help.

Accountant222 · 05/03/2018 19:54

£10:per hour cash in hand

TheGlitterFairy · 05/03/2018 19:55

£12.50/ hour - central London. She’s amazing.....if you’ve found a cleaner who is great, try to keep her/ him!

TeeBee · 05/03/2018 19:58

SE, I pay £10/hour. No holiday pay, if she doesn't clean she doesn't charge. Uses her own cleaning materials but my equipment. She's not great but she's good enough and I trust her...and she's lovely.

LeighaJ · 05/03/2018 20:00

£2 more per hour is ridiculous, £0.50 raise is the most I'd consider reasonable. I make minimum wage at my job and am looking forward to my government mandated raise so I'm having trouble mustering up sympathy for your cleaner tbh. 😅

Yogagirl123 · 05/03/2018 20:02

£12.50 ph South East

Smokenbubbles · 05/03/2018 20:02

Yabu. Maybe you should cut back on a coffee and pay her what she deserves. You say you couldn't afford it if you add it up yearly so maybe you should get a piggy bank and put all your and your oh pocket change in there and then I'm sure you can. Do you never go out and buy a coffee or a snack or any little luxuries? Then no you probably can't afford a cleaner but if you do then I'm sure you can. Good cleaners are hard to come by.

RoughPatchMum · 05/03/2018 20:05

I pay £12 ph in the SE. Fortnightly is a good shout to keep her. Mine comes fortnightly and I found when it was just DH and me working full time the house didn't get that grubby anyway, now we have DS (2) it could probably do with weekly but it just means I do a bit more in between than I did before!

Beware that your cleaner might need longer if you go down to fortnightly. Mine said 2 hours a week or 3 hours a fortnight for my house - as things take longer to clean when there's a longer gap between cleans.

Smokenbubbles · 05/03/2018 20:09

London costs in London are much more than anywhere else. These are the minimum real living wages- www.livingwage.org.uk/what-real-living-wage
£8.75 for the rest of uk and £10.20 for London. So if people are paying more outside of London I think it's reasonable for you to pay it inside of London.

Shen0102 · 05/03/2018 20:10

20% increase is too much of a jump in general weather her previous prices where cheap or not. You should def negotiate and make it known that even min wage or inflation doesn't go up by that much percent yearly. or just come out straight and tell her you can't afford it. she might have a perception that because you can afford a cleaner you must be well of.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 05/03/2018 20:11

I’m in a nice(ish) village which is part of a family deprived city. We’ve just gone from £10 to £11 ph with an independent cleaner. We don’t pay for her or our holidays. On the village Facebook page someone was suggesting they’d pay £15ph.

iamyourequal · 05/03/2018 20:16

I would probably pay the extra £4 but make it clear you are not able to sustain and further price hikes in a long while. Alternatively, I would be looking to talk one of my neighbours into hiring her, weekly on same day as she does yours. The no traveling costs between jobs and extra contract might encourage her to keep the price stagnant!

Original poster

applesauce1 · 05/03/2018 22:12

@Smokenbubbles I don't think I've had a coffee out for years! I'm surprised if I find time to make and drink an instant coffee at work. Equally, we never buy new clothes and shop at Aldi and eat in blah blah blah. We live frugally.
You're probably right in that we could find the money from somewhere if we looked hard enough. I've never said that she doesn't deserve the money. I asked whether the price increase tallied with what others are paying and said that she is definitely very good and deserves the going rate. Now we need to go through our spreadsheets again and see.
I'll definitely ask about fortnightly cleaning.

OP posts:

kalapattar · 05/03/2018 22:18

It's business. Either her pay rate will be accepted by you or not.
Then she has to find more customers.

It's hard knowing when to put up a pay rate. It's not so difficult knowing whether to accept it - there might well be someone else who can do the same job for less money.

Just like any job really.

kalapattar · 05/03/2018 22:21

I'll definitely ask about fortnightly cleaning

So her idea to increase her pay by 20% might well have backfired as she will lose the regular weekly clean....unless she can find someone to take the extra slot available.

londonrach · 05/03/2018 22:26

Parents pay £10 an hour. My sister paid similar but via agency so cleaner gets less. Agree if you cant afford £12 per hour and you enjoy cleaning...why not do the cleaning. If you dont enjoy cleaning £10 or £12 per hour is worth it to not do a job you hate.

VinoEsmeralda · 05/03/2018 22:28

We pay our cleaner £10 cash. She does a good enough job.

our DC have cottoned on that its good money and have offered to clean 2 hrs each for £4ph and if done well get £10.
They clean well but wont be as reliable as she is.

Btw I earn just over £8 ph and lucky if we get a 1% increase...

FluffyWuffy100 · 05/03/2018 22:35

I meant that if I'm paying the cleaner more than I'm making from the paintings, it doesn't make economical sense for me to be using my time keeping up with painting orders, and should do our own cleaning instead. Does that make sense?

But that is your hobby. You pay for a cleaner so you can do your hobby, not to make money from it.

Are you paid more than £12/hour for teaching. Almost certainly. Also cleaner can't get paid for every hour of the day as has to travel between clients. If you don't get more than £12/hour to teach then crack on and set up your own cleaning business!

You are choosing to pay a

RandomMess · 05/03/2018 22:37

Cleaner is covering her commuting time and costs...

Sounds like you need to rethink having a cleaner

MrsRyanGosling15 · 05/03/2018 22:52

I wouldn't pay more than £10 per hour. I'm on the top of my band and earn £14.59 per hour after 7 years. I earned less than £11 per hour when I qualified. It may not be a popular opinion on Mumsnet but I don't feel the job requires that. I'm in Ireland if it makes any difference. Don't know anyone who pays more than £10 and have never seen any cleaning jobs advertising for more than that. They are usually around £8 per hour. Also I think asking for a 20% pay rise 1 year into employment is a bit cheeky but sure if you don't ask you don't get.

BackforGood · 05/03/2018 22:55

£10ph (Birmingham)

I too was going to suggest fortnightly.
I have only recently started having a cleaner (I'm in my 50s) and I LOVE it. However, your budget is your budget.

This If you can't afford m extra £4 a week then you can't really afford a cleaner in the first place (along with the equally ridiculous 'You shouldn't go out for a meal if you can't afford a tip) is one of the more ridiculous things that gets trotted out on MN. How anyone can not understand that having saved / budgeted £10 for something, that you can't suddenly produce £12, even if you'd like to . At what point does that thinking stop ? If she ups her price by 50% ? 100% ? It is just a nonsensical thing to say.

I don't blame the cleaner - if that's what she feels she needs to earn, and if she thinks she has enough people willing and able to pay it, then good luck to her, but if the OP doesn't have the extra £4 a week that she can justify giving to her, then the cleaner ends up earning less, unless she has clients queuing up.

Just say to her that you appreciate her work and would love to be able to pay her that but you can't afford it every week and were wondering if she'd come once a fortnight instead, but understand if she can't / doesn't want to, and that you'd have to finish using her at the time of the price rise.... blh blah... will give good references etc.

deste · 05/03/2018 22:58

It’s normal where I live. I know one who charges £15.00 per hour but I think that is overkill.

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