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 per hour is the average rate in my area, you must of been getting her at a bargain rate previously and she has now aligned her prices with others in the area.

Cost of living has increased and therefore, her rates have increased also. She has fuel costs etc to consider. If you aren’t happy, then you don’t have to outsource your cleaning.

Is this not the normal rate now ? My Cleaner is 15e an hour, and has been for a while. I live in a two and a half bed cottage - three hours cleans it with the odd extra hours to do deep clean. My house defoe needs three hours to clean, it would not be done in two . There is no way i would give her up

Eh? AIBU to ask how she arrives at that

Yes, I think so. She's realised she's been undercharging I should think.

Agree £15 is probably the going rate now.

However my cleaner does our 5 bed house in 4 hours so 3 hours for 2 bed flat seems a lot.

We pay ours £15 an hour.

Cleaners don’t do 1 hour
lots have a minimum of 3

No it isn’t .
it is less than the London living wage (allowing for on costs and holiday pay)

I am also surprised when posters boast that they are paying less than living wage. You seem proud but surely you should feel ashamed?

I tjink I'm.in the wrong job....NHS employee on 10.19.an hour maybe I should be a cleaner

@Lindisfarne1 most cleaners are self employed so their holiday pay, bank holidays, insurance tax etc must be taken into account when they calculate their hourly rate.

I think that's reasonable to be fair especially with cost of living increases. Cut her hours to 2 if that works better for you.

Precisely

Rate is fine.

She does not need 3 hours, unless that is including a lot of extras like changing bed and ironing, rotating other tasks like oven, blinds, windows inside, pulling out furniture etc.

If it is just basic cleab of 1 bed, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, 1 lounge, just dusting and hoovering and a clean of the bath and kitchen then an hour is sufficient.

And the problem with cutting her hours is she may make out that she can't do the clean in the time. I can't see how she can justify the time though.

Seems long and expensive. I have a very dusty 2 bed house and my cleaner takes 1.5 hours on £12ph. I just put her wage up myself from £10ph and she brings all cleaning products and irons al the bedding. She takes 2 hours if I give her extra things to do like cleaning silver.

If you cut her hours (presumably you both previously agreed this was what was required? Two bed apartments can vary in size massively) be prepared for her not to accept the job. DH is a (very good, and in demand) cleaner and it's the cost of fuel between jobs which makes it unviable to take certain jobs eg asked to do 1hr x 5 days which just isn't worth it when you have to pay for petrol. (No public transport at the time and he has equipment anyway).

The "looking down on" and expecting some sort of race to the bottom to minimum wages for cleaners, makes me . Anyone snottily saying "well I may as well quit my job and become a cleaner" - go for it then! It's hard physical job (if you're doing it right ) It's the kid of comment people make about people in receipt of benefits (who are usually working anyway). It grinds my gears.

Mind you, I fucking hate cleaning

Yabu. That's actually very reasonable. I pay a little more than that and I supply all products. I think you were paying for very cheap labor before and you should feel embarrassed to query this now.

We pay £15 an hour

Wenone that's before stoppages. Not disrespect to cleaners at all have been one myself in the past. I'm qualified but my job is only classed as level 2 in nhs. Currently job searching...

cleaning is overrated. Drop your standards a bit and do it yourself half as often.

I pay £16 per hour and think that is quite modest. We have a 4 bed house and our cleaner manages all of the downstairs and just our bedroom and the bathroom + ensuite in 3 hours to a very high standard. I agree with others who have posted, new rate is reasonable but you are probably booking too much time. Have you thought about having the cleaner every fortnight or once a month and doing it yourself in between as a compromise?

Definitely YABU. I gave my cleaner a rise, sat down with her and worked out that to cover gas and electric prices alone this year she needed to put everyone up to £15 and hour NOW. She could walk out on me and get £20+ an hour any time she wanted.

I pay £20ph so your bill sounds cheap to me.

It doesn't matter how she arrived at the figure. She is self employed and can charge what she wants. I expect she's factoring in the rate of inflation, cost of fuel, cost of cleaning products, NI rise, mortgage interest rates and everything else. It's a luxury so you can end the arrangement any time you like. She'll have no trouble getting new business at that rate. IMO she was undercharging before.

£15 per hour not over the top, if you're not happy look for a new cleaner?

When did she last put her prices up? My guess is not for a few years, so her rate will have been effectively dwindling as the cost of living rises.
£15 seems like the going rate so I don’t think it’s unreasonable of her to ask.

Love the “it’s a small easy flat to clean” narrative- 2 bloody adults no kids, clean your own god damn home and save the money then!!!