Cleaner's pay London?

[abvgd]

My cleaner has announced an increase from £12/ hour to £15/hour. We last increased her rate two years ago from £10 to £12. She works with us 7 hours a week; I paid her through COVID and she got a few new clients through my network.

I find it quite steep, both as a 25% bump up (I don't get a double digit annual salary increase, the inflation and cost of living increases are way below this, there is no other service we use that has increased so dramatically in such a short period of time) and compared to average London pay for cleaning services. I want to be fair and competitive but this seems quite excessive.

AIBU?

The jump is quite steep but I think you were getting a bargain at £12 per hour in London. She probably realised what everyone else was charging and upped her prices.

Are you having a laugh?

I pay my cleaner £20, and I am in Northern Ireland.

I can’t believe that just two years ago you were only paying £10 an hour. £15 an hour seems a reasonable amount not even considering the fact that you are in central London.

As usual you have a choice. She sets the rates, you can either pay them or find someone else.

Ours asked for £15 ph.
We want to keep her so we pay it.
Plus 4 weeks holiday and Xmas bonus of a week's pay.

I am in the south east and the standard rate is £15 -£18 an hour.

Well it's entirely up to her isn't it what her prices are.
And it's entirely up to you if you continue to use her services or not.
£15 is incredibly cheap for a cleaner in London.

We pay £15 per hour (outer London).

Errr yeah you're being really unreasonable. Have you actually investigated how much a cleaning firm franchise would cost to do the same job? It's a lot more than £15 an hour, and that's without a London premium. The real Living Wage for London is £10.85, sure you've probably not had that big a pay rise, but you're also unlikely to be that close to the bread line. £15 an hour is a great deal.

a cleaning firm franchise would bring all their own equipment and materials, and would have insurance. A cleaning firm would guarantee weekly cover of holidays / illness.
It's not therefore comparable to an individual and therefore you need to be sure you're comparing apples with apples on service level as well as fee. £20 / hour is highly unlikely to be a cash in hand individual using the homeowner's materials etc.

I pay my cleaner £15/hour and I'm in rural Northern Ireland. To give some context my 5 bed house with gate cottage on 5 acres of garden cost under £450k...it is much lower cost of living here!

I think you're getting a fair deal. I can't remember what I paid in Buckinghamshire but it was around £12/hour and that was a good few years ago, with them using our cleaning products (my current one brings all her own stuff).

It doesn’t really matter what you or anyone else thinks of her pricing. That’s what she’s charging now so if you’re not happy with it you just don’t use her services any more.

Yabu.
Good cleaners are so hard to come by, especially those available for 7 hours a week. £15 is pretty average in my commuter belt town for reliable, insured cleaners with references

You were paying her £12 2 years ago prior to Covid. So £84 a week for her 7 hours. I'm not surprised you were able to introduce her to friends wanting a cleaner at that price. I was paying £10 in central London for a cleaner back in the Nineties.

Now she's asking for £15 or £105 a week.

How does she get to you? does she pay her own transport? Is it PAYE so she has a look in at a pension? Or cash?

As PP have said, if you don't want to pay that much, find someone else. Good luck.

That was shockingly low and is still low.

Outer London and we pay £12ph but previous cleaner charged £15. She “forgot” to mop or vacuum any floors for that price and when asked claimed she didn’t have time so was swiftly let go.

Food and energy have gone up massively. It's way more as a percentage of your income if you're low paid. You can't clean 40 hours a week at the rate a private householder expects. She presumably has no pension contributions, no sickness absence benefits, no paid holiday? I think yabu here.

I had to get a new cleaner recently and she’s £15 an hour (Central London). My old cleaner was amazing and charged £12.50, but £15 seems to be the going rate now.

YABU !

Our cleaner went up to £17ph - home counties. Quite right too.

This again? Pretty much this exact thread was done a couple of weeks ago.

Either pay the new rate or find a new cleaner. FYI they’re all putting their rates up now- costs are increasing.

I'm shocked at the responses. I'm London and have an amazing cleaner for 12 p/h. I will def cherish her

I'm in outer London and pay £17.50 an hour, which seems to be tge going rate around here.

Thank you for your responses. It seems like the average rate has gone up but varies widely, both nationwide and in specific neighbourhoods. In addition to this post i've asked a similar question through local WhatsApp groups; answers to it revealed quite a wide range of hourly rates, both higher and lower than what I am paying now.

To posters explaining that it's up to the cleaner to set the rate and up to me to accept it or not - thank you, I appreciate your taking time to respond. It is all about supply and demand, and that's what I want to ascertain by having a quick poll on rates in this forum.

To answer questions posed above:

The cleaner leaves nearby and uses a scooter to get to me.

All my cleaning products.

7 hours per week is typically viewed as an attractive proposition compared to smaller chunks of time that require separate commutes.

Yes, I can compare it with using a cleaning agency which I did a while ago for a few months and it was cheaper than engaging with a cleaner directly but the quality was disappointing, hence my preference to hire a cleaner individually.

@lololololollll

I'm shocked at the responses. I'm London and have an amazing cleaner for 12 p/h. I will def cherish her

She'd probably rather you paid her more! She can't pay the rent with cherishes ...