A friend who lives alone employs a cleaner for four hours a week at £10 an hour. The same friend also took on a young dog that needed rehoming during lockdown and is trying to work out how she's going to manage the dog now she's returning to the office one day a week. The dog panics when left alone: it had to be rehomed because of this problem. My friend thought it would be easy to sort out, but despite her attempts at desensitisation the dog howls and poos when left for more than a few minutes.
The cleaner likes the dog and has said that she's happy to look after it while she's there cleaning and will take it for a good walk when she's finished and then stay on until my friend comes home, charging £10 per hour. That could be a total of £90.
My friend thinks that charging £10 an hour to look after the dog is outrageous. She's found a kennel not far away where her dog could spend the day in a concrete run for £18 — or £22 if she wants someone to take it out and exercise it in a field with other dogs.
My friend had to put the dog in these kennels for a day a few weeks ago and apparently the dog howled and paced and came home trembling and hoarse. My friend knows the dog will be unhappy in the kennel and much happier at home with the cleaner. She's told me she's going to offer the cleaner £40 for the four hours cleaning and then another £20 for 4-5 hours of dog-walking and dog-sitting till she gets home from work.
I've pointed out that that's lower than the living wage and said that I wouldn't even think of suggesting it. The cleaner seems very cheap to me anyway: most people I know pay £12-15 per hour. I also pointed out that my friend needs reliability and offering someone such a low rate will mean they'll drop her the moment something better comes along. I've suggested that my friend asks the cleaner to take on more cleaning tasks and do the ironing while she's there. My friend says there isn't enough work to do and the cleaner will be able to spend several hours watching TV and drinking tea with the dog. I've pointed out that she's going to be there, looking after the dog, and needs to be properly compensated even if she's not doing much.
My friend disagrees and is planning to ask her to work for five hours at £10ph and then accept £20 for an extra four hours, when she can do what she wants as long as she's there for the dog.
Am I being unreasonable to think she's being outrageously cheap and will end up without a cleaner? If you were the cleaner what would you do?