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 totally standard for a cleaner in most places.

However - 3 hours to do a 2-bed flat is a bit bonkers, unless you have loads and loads of knick-knacks, or antiques that need French polishing. Our cleaner does 2 floors of our house in 3 hours (2 x living rooms, kitchen, utility room, stairs, hall, landing, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom) and it's plenty.

Up the money but cut the hours, a one bed flat that is already tidy should only take an hour.

This.

It's a reasonable price without even taking into account petrol price hikes, etc.

YABU. Pay her or cancel and do your own cleaning.

I’d imagine it’s the fuel costs from getting from job to job that’s partly driven the rise.

I think you’ve been paying under market for a while. It’s a big increase, but not out of the norm for the general cost for the job

You are not her employer
she is a self employed business person offering her services.

if you don’t want to buy them don’t.
£15 is about right.
she was charging less than minimum wage with on costs and holiday pay before

Is she cleaning inside the oven/fridge/windows each week? Or ironing?

If not 3 hours is taking the piss. Hourly rate seems ok.

So she’s cleaning 3 rooms plus a bathroom or two? What jobs does she do for that? Is she actually working the 3 hours? £15 is probably average but you should expect a reasonable standard and pace of work for that and it seems like she’s possibly overcharging in terms of hours but it depends what jobs you’re getting her to do

10 to 15 would be a 50pc increase

35% increase would suggest the cleaner is on £11.11 at the moment, which does indeed seem below market rate

She should be able to manage a 2 bed flat in 2 hours. My cleaner cleans hall, stairs, child's bedroom including changes sheets weekly, kitchen, lounge, dining room, child's bathroom and downstairs cloakroom and she vaccines/steam mops all floors and CV leans inside of windows in lounge and dining room. I pay £12.50 per hour which is what she charges. In your situation I would just agree pay increase but reduce her hours to 2 hours per week. If she says she can't get Cleaning done in 2 hours then I would look for one who could.

Probably because by the time she takes to travel, saves for holiday pay / sick pay, does accounts / HMRC stuff she's actually being paid under minimum wage.

There's obviously been some kind of light bulb moment and I'd still day £15 per hour was cheap.

Yes I came on to same this.

I assume you’re rounding OP? - she was on £11 or £11.50 before or so?

The one thing I discovered about cleaning is that the price varies dramatically between region and actually places where you’d expect the cost to be higher eg London they’re actually the lowest. So I’m not sure how helpful it is for people to say “this is not the going rate!”
Could you counter with offering £13? Or just suck up the few quid difference? Or just cancel the cleaner. I haven’t had one since Covid and miss it less than I thought I would.

Fair play to her for asking for more money, you were underpaying her.

How far does she travel? Is she a car owner? Do you pay for your cancellations/holidays? The rates of inflation will be affecting those on low rates of pay. It sounds like she was charging a low rate and needed to put up her prices. Only you can decide if you think it’s worth it.

£15 per hour is cheap now but for a 2 bed flat, 2 hours should be ample.

Ours have just risen from £13 to £15 too, I think costs are going up all over the place and the biggie is petrol getting to and from places. I think they are worth it so we keep paying, and hopefully that will be it with their increases for a little while.

Just to add though, they do our 5 bedroom house in 4 hours so maybe you could reduce the hours if it's too much?

You are at liberty to either accept her charges or get another cleaner.

this

I pay £15 per hour. 2 bed house, 2 people & a dog. I tidy before she comes. She hasn’t increased her prices since the NMW went up but it will happen and I will be willing to pay. Cleaners are usually self employed which means they do not get holiday pay. They need to accrue that in their hourly rate. She probably does more cleans in a day than just yours

What's the point in querying it?

She's told you her new rate. It's up to you whether to accept it or not.

I think if you cut her hours she will just drop you and fill the space with someone else .I
could be wrong but she’d have an hour to fill

I can clean a 4 bedroom,2 bathroom,kitchen, hall, playroom, and 2 lounges in that time.

This person doesn't need 3 hours to clean your flat.

Get someone else to have a look and give you a price

The rate is ok imo but 3 hours seems quite long for the space

We have four hours for 4 bed house with 3 floors (so lots of stairs which admittedly are a pain)

I'm in London and 12 an hour is standard?