Paying cleaner for holidays

[Pipiste]

I know it’s not about being unreasonable, but just wanted to gauge opinion as will need to get cash out by 0900 tomorrow!

Our cleaner is great, does a 2hr clean each week for £30 (3 bed, changes main bedsheets, mops everywhere, just a basic clean). So happy with her, she’s a whirlwind, it’s hard getting a cleaner round here. I give her a little present at Christmas and an extra week’s pay. Also pay if we have to cancel due to a bug. She’s very religious and is going back to Portugal for two weeks at Easter and is going to be hosting everyone, cooking, doing everting for the extended family (probably not relevant!).

Would usually not pay if she’s away on holiday, but as it’s an occasion more important to her than Christmas, should I give her extra? I was thinking of getting her an Easter card and putting £60 in it (£30 for the clean and £30 Easter bonus - although she’s away for two weeks, so maybe it should be £90, but that seems a bit over the top?). Haven’t had this dilemma before as had not had her over Easter, she started just after (she’s the first cleaner we’ve had).

Don’t want to get her an Easter gift or flowers as she won’t be in the country.

What does everyone else do?

Your cleaner sounds like a dream, she does a lot in 2 hours! I pay my cleaner 4 weeks sick pay / holiday pay a year

This! I would only ever pay my cleaner for hours she has actually cleaned!! Occasionally she cancels on me and less occasionally I cancel on her.

I do give her nice snacks and drinks when she's working, and give her a massive Christmas hamper, with food and alcohol in.

Pay her for her holidays (up to an average 4 or 5 weeks a year, not for extended leans obviously).

It’s the decent thing to do.

More important than tipping at Christmas.

Whow! When I was self employed, working in peoples homes and cleaning more intimate things than toilets, it would have been fantastic if ALL my clients paid me 5 weeks of holiday pay each when I was off.😃

I pay my cleaner when we go away, but not when she does. If she can't come due to sickness then I'll pay.

Fgs, I'd put 100 quid in the card and wish her well.

She sounds like a gem.

I had a cleaner for 15 years. I only paid her when she cleaned - it was fine for her to say she was away abs wouldn’t clean that week. Sometimes she offered for her daughter to clean instead or to come a different day .

When I went away I was happy for her to clean still and and paid or choose to have a few weeks off too if she preferred.

I also got her nice gifts at Christmas and thanked her and treated her with due respect.

The general etiquette is to pay if YOU choose for them not to work but not to pay if THEY choose not to work.

I don’t understand this whole thing of paying self employed people when they don’t provide the service that you are paying for- I’m self employed, no
one ever pays me to not do my job. Surely the whole part and parcel of choosing to be self employed is charging a fee that covers outgoings such as tax, expenses and any annual leave?

I think the £60 would be a nice gesture.

FWIW I pay my cleaner when she is goes away to see family, which is 2-3 weeks a year.

From my perspective in our household we are hugely privileged to have full time jobs that enable us to pay someone to clean. We also get paid holiday to enable us to rest-time off is important to us.

I'm not kidding myself that it is always a life choice that someone has ended up in a low paid, unreliable wage job. The cost of living crisis is a particular squeeze for those on irregular incomes.

We are not huge earners but can afford the £30 / week from my own regular wage. I would have paid her if she was here, so withdrawing this so she can take less of a rest than I get in annual leave is not the right thing to do from my perspective.

I might feel different if it was lots and lots but a couple of weeks a year it just seems like the right thing to do

I would have thought £30 would be generous enough as you're paying her for a week she isn't there.

I pay my cleaner a weeks extra at Xmas. All other days off/ holidays she takes are unpaid unless it's us cancelling. When we're away I pay her and she usually dies a basic clean- so we're away for 2 weeks, I give 2 weeks money, she does a clean and tidy once before we come home.

We don’t charge our clients when we have to ‘hold’ their space when they’re away.
They don’t pay us anything when we go on holiday.
Do what you want but there isn’t a right or wrong thing to do.
If you pay her now though, she’ll expect it every time she’s away

I'm a cleaner and don't expect any pay when I'm not working although of course it is a lovely thing to do and sounds like you've given it some thought as to why it would be beneficial to her and would be very much appreciated!

As a cleaner I get nothing extra. I get a small gift at Christmas and nothing for holidays or if they are sick or away. I do laundry, bed changes , polishing, hoovering, collecting post and even cooking. I carry an enhanced DBS and charge £13 p/h. I would've loved to have a client like yourself.