Cleaners increase in hourly rate

[user1478790138]

Hello

First thread here so pls be gentle.

We have a largeish house in the Nottinghamshire, 6 BR, 4 BA and a fairly large ground floor, 2 children and dogs. Have had a pair of cleaners who come twice a week (initially three times but then it was to hectic for us) for several months now and paid £12ph, they want to increase it to 13.5 now. They do the cleaning and tidying, of which there is a fair amount but I don’t limit them time wise. Not sure now how to react, we’ve had them since March, somehow an increase of 100+ quid a month seems a bit steep in such a short period of time? What would you do??
Thank you

@WaterAndRichTea

They seem to do alot There wages were low in the beginning

How many hours a week do they do?

£15 is very average here!

Oh wow, I must admit I haven’t checked what’s the average pay was when they offered their services, I just agreed to whatever they asked really. They do +/- 20 hrs

Also in Nottingham. I used to use an agency that paid my cleaner £10 per hour. + an agency fee monthly. I got rid of the agency and just deal with her direct as it turns out she had private clients. She charges £13 hour. I felt bad that the agency paid her less.

Could be worse my cleaner increased her rate from $35 per hour to $55.
Needless to say she is no longer my cleaner ......

While I am not at all familiar with the rates there, I will say that I would imagine that the rates are raising across the board, ALL customers will be paying the increase rate, regardless of how long they have used the service. I don't personally know of businesses who raise or don't raise rated according to longevity (other than cable television companies with their "gotcha" first year reductions). It would make their bookkeeping a bit of a nightmare.

That's really cheap. It's £100 more because you basically employ a part time housekeeper if they're doing 20 hours a week, not because their rate is unusually high. Most people tidy for the cleaner, your expectations are not usual and that is why you pay more, this is not a problem with your service.

The only reaction is to accept the price rise or appoint someone else, I don't see why this needs a thread on Mumsnet! What else are you going to do, demand they reinstate their prices? Good luck with that.

And what you pay them is not "pay", you are not their employer. It's the cost of the service they decide to offer you for a price they decide to charge which includes their profit and costs. It's your choice whether to accept it. And their costs will be going up exponentially at the moment - fuel, energy prices rising massively causes the price of everything else to go up.

I think yabu. She is being very reasonable.

£15 p/h is also fair standard here. I have really struggled to find a decent and reliable cleaner, that shows up to the agreed times and doesn’t break things. If you are happy with them, I would pay the increased rate. Agree with others on tidying!

@Sciurus83

That's really cheap. It's £100 more because you basically employ a part time housekeeper if they're doing 20 hours a week, not because their rate is unusually high. Most people tidy for the cleaner, your expectations are not usual and that is why you pay more, this is not a problem with your service.

Potentially my expectation of them is higher. I’ve never tidied or cleaned ahead of cleaners as I see it as part of their job, they can do anything they see fit or spend as many hours they’d like to achieve a clean/tidy house. We moved on from having a housekeeper because we’ve worked from home for nearly 2 years now and sharing house 24/7 is difficult - weekends were calamitous.

20 hours every week?! Crikey. That is a lot for a cleaner. I’ve never known anyone have more than 8hrs, the enormous manor next door only has around 8 over 2 days (they use my former cleaner).

I do think you are perhaps expecting too much, a housekeeper is different to a cleaner. Tidying is not the norm.

But £15 ph is average outside of London I think for a good cleaner. I have paid £10-£15ph in recent years. The £10 was cash in hand to a friend of a friend who lived very nearby, with us supplying everything. There’s a few around the £12 mark but the bigger companies are more.
The £15 was to a proper business that supplied everything and all “above board”. We were quoted up to £22 by a big chain with a dire reputation.

Alas I have no cleaner at all now as going down to a 4 day week that was what we had to cut. As soon as our 30hr funded nursery kicks in the cleaner resumes! I’ll be grateful for anything by then tbh as the house is a pit.

I'm not normally an arse about stuff like this but fuck me.....how the other half live.

Are you paying them £12 each or total. £12 total seems shockingly low for two people per hour.

Potentially my expectation of them is higher. I’ve never tidied or cleaned ahead of cleaners as I see it as part of their job, they can do anything they see fit or spend as many hours they’d like to achieve a clean/tidy house. We moved on from having a housekeeper because we’ve worked from home for nearly 2 years now and sharing house 24/7 is difficult - weekends were calamitous.

And herein lies your problem. Tidying is really not part of a cleaner's job (clue's in the title!), whereas it is part of a housekeeper's (clue's also in the title there). If the cleaners you've found are happy to be paid £13.50 an hour and do the tidying as well I'd consider myself lucky and keep quiet to be honest.

Also just out of interest, do you literally do no cleaning/tidying yourself in between their visits? And how are you generating so much mess that it takes 20 hours a week to clean up after you? Not sure you can put it all on the pre schoolers; toys take minutes to clear away at the end of a day.

@GiltEdges is spot on. In the past I have been both a cleaner and a housekeeper and they are very different. When I was a cleaner I always made it very clear that tidying was not part of the service and not my issue if untidy areas blocked me from cleaning. Eg; if a carpet was so covered in clothes etc..that I couldn't vacuum, it did not get vacuumed. I would happily clean the oven/kitchen floor/surfaces/cupboards/fridge. I did not wash up/unload dishwashers/do any laundry.

Setting aside the matter of the relative % increase, I think YABVU to equivocate.
If you're unhappy with their service, definitely look elsewhere, but 13.50ph is really NOT an unreasonable hourly rate.

I imagine your time is more expensive than theirs. Paying people to tidy up after you before they clean is a massive luxury most people cannot afford. If you don’t want to pay so much, you’ll have to spend time tidying up first.

For reference, I’m a similar distance from London and pay £15 an hour.

Whether or not they tidy is up to the OP surely? just means she needs to pay the requisite number of hours for them to tidy as well as clean - hence the 20 hours per week - presumably 2 people twice a week for for five hours.

And for those talking about "high" rates for larger companies - if you're looking at £15 an hour, that's only three people full time before they'll need to be VAT registered, adding 20% to the cost.

If that cleaner worked full time then she’s getting paid more than the starting salary for a nurse!
Either that’s too high for a cleaner or nurses are being seriously underpaid!!

I would look at reviewing the number of hours. How efficient are they? We have a 5 bed with 4 bathrooms, 2 children but no pets and find 4 hours a week is more than adequate. Their hourly rate is OK but should be on the lower side of the market rates as they are at your house for longer so don't need to factor in travel between jobs.

I’ve never tidied or cleaned ahead of cleaners as I see it as part of their job

That’s your problem - tidying is not part of their job. It’s actually really lazy of you to just leave the place a complete tip, not even bother tidying for them, and expect them to just come and sort it all out for you.

Gosh, I’d be mortified if I were you. I’d be so embarrassed if I hadn’t even made the basic effort to tidy so they could actually do their job.

If they do a good job and you’re happy pay them. Or do it yourself. Why do people think cleaners should work for a pittance?

I was a cleaner for the equivalent of 15£ /hour, with the expectation that the tidy up would be done before I arrived to clean.
You have been getting a great service for below going rates

@Canii

If that cleaner worked full time then she’s getting paid more than the starting salary for a nurse! Either that’s too high for a cleaner or nurses are being seriously underpaid!!

I’m self employed as a cleaner and I don’t work for less than £15 an hour(north west) Some jobs up to £25 an hour. People pay because I’m professional, reliable, trustworthy. Not sure why people think cleaners should be so poorly paid.

Think you need to go back to a housekeeper OP, but maybe advertise for live out, monday to Friday only

Also, you come across as very naive and Laissez-faire about market rates, what cleaners should or shouldn’t do… I find it hard to believe someone who clearly has a decent salary behind them could be so casual about what someone in their employ is doing