Cleaner's increase

[PearlclutchersInc]

My cleaner has just text me to say that her charges are going up by 35% to £15 an hour. I supply all the cleaning materials, its a 2 bed flat for which she cleans only one 1 bed and the rest - its new(ish) and she gets 3 hours to dot. There's 2 adults, one cat and we tidy up before she comes. She's not exactly over-worked

Eh? AIBU to ask how she arrives at that.

I feel really quite peeved. Don't see my employer giving me a 30-odd% rise any time soon. Happy to hear other views.

£15 an hour is very reasonable. I pay £18. She does bring her own cleaning supplies and hoover though.
Sounds like she's been undercharging and wants to be paid market rate.

Well you can ask and 15 quid an hour is pretty decent.

However if her job is so easy and a decent gig you could always team up with your bloke and share the cleaning between you once a week. It doesn't take long when there's 2 of you getting stuck in.

What you're paying for is the convenience of not doing it yourself. You do have a choice.

I assume she's self employed so can set her own prices? I don't think it's relevant what she does, just her hourly rate.

If you're not happy with the increase you don't have to use her but I'm wondering what the average price is in your area? Maybe she's been priced low until now?

£15 is the typical rate where I am
once you factor in travel time between jobs, it’s not exactly a fortune, so I don’t begrudge it

if you don’t like it, find someone cheaper

the good cleaners have waiting lists so if she is any good, she won’t have trouble filling her slot elsewhere

So she's on £10 currently, before the increase? That seems quite low to me (for cleaners in this area anyway). However I agree with you that 3 hours seems a lot for the space. Maybe reduce her hours so you're paying the same amount but she's there for a shorter time?

cut her down to 2 hours - there is no way that a 2 bed flat needs 3 hours

She has decided what she needs to live on and what the market rate for her services. You just have to decide whether you can afford it but I don't think you should query it..

That’s the market rate - my cleaning company has done three increases in the last year
I am in the south east and pay on par with that
I also provide all cleaning stuff
with the cost of living increases it’s not a surprise people are putting prices up
most people, you’re right, don’t get such large increases in one chunk but it does sound as though she wasn’t charging market rates previously

Don't use her then?

I would cut her down to two hours and pay the £30. You don't need 3 hours for such a small space surely? It takes me 3 hours to clean a 3 bed house!

Cut the time down, I have a 3 bedroom house with two bathrooms and our cleaners take 2 hours. £15 seems reasonable, but I agree 35% is a large jump. If you’re not happy with the cleaner, you could always change to someone else, I’ve had to do that a few times.

Sounds like shes been undercharging for a long time so not seems like a big jump but actually £15/he is totally reasonable for a cleaner. Good ones are like gold dust so if she’s any good then I’m sure someone else will be willing to pay it if you aren’t.

FWIW mine has just gone up from £18-19 an hour (agency so always slightly over the odds) but the standards are so high I wouldn’t dare question it

'She's not exactly overworked'

You don't respect cleaning as a job at all do you? Sounds like you think she's just some skivvy. God forbid she'd earn a decent wage for doing what you don't want to.

Although it’s strange you supply the cleaning materials at that price, I pay just under that and they supply everything themselves.

You have a few options:
Find another cleaner
Do the cleaning yourself
Reduce the hours/frequency
Pay her the new amount

Employing a cleaner is optional. If you are not happy with their rates then find a cheaper one, good luck with that.

Three hours to clean a one bed flat seems like quite a lot but you can determine the amount of time you employ a cleaner for.

Your free time is obviously more important to you than money or you would be doing the cleaning yourself. Would you value your free time at £15 an hour?

Whether your boss would give you a 30% pay increase is irrelevant, your cleaner is obviously applying the principle of market forces so if you decide you no longer want to pay them they will have no trouble finding someone who will.

She's self employed, she can set her rate to whatever she wants

However, you don't have to accept it. You can choose to use another provider

£15 an hour is still very reasonable

My cleaner just put through a decent increase in no small part because her arsehole landlords just landed them with a horrible rent hike, even making her show the estate agent around her place so that they could revalue it and tell the landlord how much more they thought they could get. Cleaning is a crappily paid job anyway and with fuel costs, food costs etc the cost of living hike will impact her more than it will me.

I don’t love having to pay more, but she is a trustworthy and nice person, and does a fabulous job. In the general schemes of things being able to afford a cleaner is a luxury and we are more able to afford an increase than she is able to, so we accept that. FYI it’s more than £15/hr now.

if you can’t afford it maybe drop to 2 hours and pick up the slack yourself?

You do realise how much the cost of living is rising don't you?

You were getting her very cheap before. I was a cleaner 5 years ago and charged £15 an hour (but supplied everything except the hoover). It was difficult to fit enough jobs of the right length in to get 8hrs of pay a day, as well as travelling in between that you don't charge for.

I think you're being very tight and clearly don't respect her.

£15 an hour is really reasonable.
you’ve been paying well under market rate.
good luck finding anyone cheaper.

My in laws were paying that several years ago up north. Their house was spotless too, she pretty much just pretended to clean for 3 hours. If you can't afford to pay her the increase then you can't afford a cleaner put bluntly. I wouldn't say £15 is unreasonable personally.

This. Having g a cleaner isn't compulsory. If any part of the arrangement isn't working for you then change it. If that means you clean for yourselves then that's a choice. My brother and his wife work fulltime and have no children. They have a 2 bed house. They clean by splitting the jobs into upstairs and downstairs. He does upstairs one week and downstairs the next.They set aside an hour and crack on. Then they go out and do nice things . They tidy up after themselves as they go along so it's never a tip.

That's very normal, my cleaner also sent around an increase. This will happen on everything now - cost of living/inflation.

I think if she was charging £11 ph before - and it sounds like it was somewhere in there - then you were getting her very cheaply. But it also doesn't take three hours to clean a two-bed flat, especially when only one bedroom is being done. Cut it down to two.

YABU. It's £15-20 per hour where I live and all the decent cleaners have waiting lists. I'm all for these types of job being properly paid at last.