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Original poster

Cleaners increase in hourly rate

515 replies

user1478790138 · 16/10/2021 00:14

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

OP posts:
Lalliella · 16/10/2021 09:54

That’s cheap! Also you don’t know how long their rates have been £12 for, you might just have started to employ them at a time when they realised their rates hadn’t gone up for a while and decided to raise them.

forinborin · 16/10/2021 10:00

20 hours, more or less, is probably how much domestic chores take per week in an average family with small children anyway, no? I cannot understand the outrage here?
I have my cleaner / housekeeper for 12-15 hrs / week in the periods when I don't have time to breathe, and the house is still getting quite messy / filthy in between her visits.

Petronius16 · 16/10/2021 10:04

South West urban. We pay £13 an hour to a small company who can't get cleaners for love nor money. We're elderly and house is generally tidy, but would pay more. Local FB group always has requests for cleaners and carers (they're like gold dust).

MRex · 16/10/2021 10:04

Some cleaners are skilled and fast, some are not. A good cleaner should be £15/hr, a less good one maybe £13 is ok. Nobody working hard should be on less than that. Wage increases tend to go in little jumps, but it's also worth remembering that gas and electricity charges are increasing, food prices are up, some other prices likely to rise... If your wages don't go up then that's a shame, but the lowest paid should not be held back for that.

Hocuspocus99 · 16/10/2021 10:10

I’m a cleaner and charge £12 per hour currently . Am contemplating to increase in new year . As they come twice a week every week the house must be relatively clean to start with and an easier clean . However having the right cleaning products and a vacuum cleaner that actually picks up ( Sebo all the way for me ). As everyone has stated fuel has gone up and so has cleaning products . So if they are reliable and friendly , they clean well , and above all you trust them . That above all is the most important thing of all .

PurpleFlower1983 · 16/10/2021 10:11

@crossstitchingnana

I can't believe how much cleaners get per hour. I have trained for 3 years to become a therapist and I don't get that. 😥
You don’t get £13.50 an hour as a therapist?!
DameMaureen · 16/10/2021 10:11

[quote user1478790138]@PennyWus they do the whole house every time, if something needs a deep clean they do it separately, I book another day

@ThinWomansBrain you are absolutely right, it’s the principle. I know we are expecting overall price hike a on everything, plus shrinking of the market but…

@Angrynellie tidying is a big thing around here, we are clean but it’s hard for us to keep it tidy with two preschools who are at hone :( I really had assumed cleaners do anything you ask them to and our housekeeper used to put things/toys/cloths away.[/quote]
I really had assumed cleaners do anything you ask them to and our housekeeper used to put things/toys/cloths away

You have mixed two roles here . Cleaners clean .

DaisyNGO · 16/10/2021 10:15

@RoseStar

*Maybe high skilled but not high demand. That's all it is. Cleaners are in demand and good luck to them*

But the point is what would happen if all the skilled workers decided it was easier and a better work life balance to go and do an unskilled job? You can’t just train people up to these roles overnight.

@C8H10N4O2 pop the bottle away love it’s not even 10am

Is that the point?

Also, I find the term "unskilled" very weird.

If cleaners are in demand and can put their prices up, that's good. There's been a race to the bottom in terms of wages. It's good if that is changing.

PurpleFlower1983 · 16/10/2021 10:15

Do you have a dedicated playroom for the kids? You obviously have a huge house but only 4 of you so I’m wondering if you can try and contain some of the mess, that would help reduce the amount of time tidying up. Could you get your little ones involved in tidying too before their bath/bed time? It sounds like you may have got used to nit doing basic tidying as someone else is doing it when really a few minute a day would help massively overall.

IggleyP · 16/10/2021 10:16

We pay £14 an hour - in the south west, in an area where wages are generally low.

We tried cheaper ones but they were not very good.

I also think you are lucky to have ones who are good at tidying and happy to do it, as not all cleaners do.

marykitty · 16/10/2021 10:16

I always find so sad when people complain about cleaners salaries but then are willing to pay whatever price instead of tidying up after themselves.

Allthesefolks · 16/10/2021 10:18

Some cleaners tidy some don’t but if you want to save money I’d suggest you do the tidying. Good reliable cleaners are worth their weight in gold so I’d suck it up.

Surely they don’t need to do the whole house twice a week, bathrooms could be once a week, especially if you have 4 and there’s only 4 of you then you can’t be using them all equally?!

Reviewer123456 · 16/10/2021 10:19

@icedcoffees

You're taking the piss out of them tbh, OP.

Why are they there for 20 hours a week? That's not cleaning, that's housekeeping in which case you should be employing them, surely?

That’s very true, they should be employed and have their NI and pension paid. OP needs to check their status as the IR35 changes maybe applicable here.
FancyAnOlive · 16/10/2021 10:19

I pay mine £15 an hour in London, maybe I should be paying her more though on the basis of this thread! Agree you should really tidy up first.

VitalsStable · 16/10/2021 10:20

We pay £14 an hour and cleaners are like gold dust round here. If you lose one it's impossible to find another who is any good. Our cleaner just cleans though. No ironing or tidying.

If she's good I'd keep her and swallow the increase or you may struggle to find one who is as good and not as expensive.

notapizzaeater · 16/10/2021 10:21

So you're paying for 40 hours a week (2 x 20 hours) id try and get a live out housekeeper tbh

TatianaBis · 16/10/2021 10:22

I’m in London, £15/hr is standard. Our house is the same size, we have 10 hours a week. If there’s extra spring cleaning, ironing etc to be done then we pay for that pro rata.

I don’t tidy for the cleaners because the house is generally tidy. It was tidy even when we had small kids as they had a play room with storage and I trained them to put their toys away.

If you want to pay extra for tidying as well as cleaning that’s up to you but £12 was way too low and £13.50 is still low imo.

2bazookas · 16/10/2021 10:23

we pay ours £15 an hour which is the local rate. I'd say you've been underpaying.

longwayoff · 16/10/2021 10:24

Can you find cheaper? No, you can't. Everything is increasing in price, rapidly. You will still be underpaying even with the suggested increase.

HowardNoir · 16/10/2021 10:25

I also have a big-ish house- 6 bed, 4.5 bath. No kids but I don't do deep cleaning or vacuuming. We pay £16 per hour but we're very rural so pay more for their travel. We have 1 cleaner who comes twice a week and we don't limit her hours, but if we were struggling to budget we'd limit the hours.

£13.50 is about right and if they're good at their job and work well with you, I'd think the increase is fine. If it's too much, limit their hours or if you're able, cut out a couple of rooms that you can clean yourself. Alternatively you could have them come one day to do a full clean with no time limit, and the second time they could have a time limit.

RoseStar · 16/10/2021 10:28

@DaisyNGO untrained then, generally means the same. The point being that “skilled” jobs are ones you just can’t put people into overnight without training or experience. HGV drivers are a good example of skilled job which is underpaid / undervalued and look what happened, it caused a huge crisis.

Perhaps the takeaway from this is threefold:

  1. Everyone should be paid a wage that affords them a decent standard of living
  2. There’s a premium to be paid for cleaners in part because they’re doing a job that other people don’t want to do (and could do without if they had to)
  3. There are a lot of “highly trained” workers who are also highly underpaid, particularly given the cost of living crisis. We really need to look after these people as we simply cannot replace them overnight.
ILoveAllRainbowsx · 16/10/2021 10:28

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

LaurenKelsey · 16/10/2021 10:30

I always do the tidying up before the cleaner arrives. I take the time to put things away so I’m not paying someone to do that. In my opinion, their time/hourly wage is best spent on the cleaning tasks.

Nocutenamesleft · 16/10/2021 10:33

I have that size house. Thankfully downsizing soon!

But I pay my ONE cleaner. £15 an hour.

She does 4 hours a week.

Lostandlittle · 16/10/2021 10:35

I don’t understand the £100 a month you refer to?

They come to your house twice a week - an extra £15 per week for you?