New cleaner wants to be paid more as house is bigger?

[Saltedbutter]

I agreed an hourly rate with a new cleaner prior to her coming and also an approximate amount of hours but left that quite open as I obviously don’t know her pace yet.
She is currently at my house and just messaged to say actually she’d like more money per hour as the house is bigger than she expected.
Surely she’ll still clean the same amount per hour as in a smaller house but just might be paid for a few more hours?
I’ve provided all products and the rate she now wants is more than my previous cleaner (who included her products).
AIBU?

Yeah that’s weird
I don’t get it either
more hours not more money per hour!
I’d find another

As has been highlighted so many times on MN, where consumables are used, they should -along with all other expenses- be built into the price. Breaking it down for a client just creates questions.

Though to get £5 an hour more pwr hour for naterials is quite the achievement...per clean, maybe.

I can't help but question what the hourly rate was.

Yes but that means it takes longer and she gets paid more.

If the hourly rate goes up as well, she gets paid more hours AND at a higher rate so it had become exponentially more expensive.

Normally the more hours work you provide, the more the rate moves towards a discount, which is why lots of tradesmen charge x for the first hour but only, say fifty percent of x thereafter.

I used to be a cleaner, it's not more money per hour for a bigger house it's more hours needed as pp have said. In regards to the cleaning products, if the cleaner is using her own products it will be more per clean but not £5 an hour, I used to charge an extra £2 per clean for using my own products.

They will either be new or crap.

Or customers will be dropping them because it's getting to the point (at least for me) where the weekly cleaning cost is the same as my weekly food shop, DH has lost his job like many other people in our social circle and we just can't afford it anymore.

Just find another cleaner if you think she's overcharging I guess?

Agree, my cleaner earns significantly more than minimum wage but for £37 an hour I would be doing my own cleaning. (cooking, ironing and chocolate mint placement too)

That happens, and it's not uncommon to drop a cleaner when someone loses their job, but short of that, or death, or moving out the area I work in, none of my clients have cancelled me.

If I was employing a potential cleaner , any propositions by them before even starting the job , would make me not take them on , as I'd be wondering how many problems once they'd started .

I don’t know where you are but cleaners earn FAR more than minimum wage. Round me they get minimum £25 an hour. I don’t even earn that

If anything she can justify a lower hourly rate as she gets more work whilst she’s there and less travel costs.

If she needs more time that’s one thing, but paying more for less doesn’t make sense.

I think cleaners should be paid above minimum wage.

However, I also think this cleaner has taken the piss. She's looked at the OP's house and interior and now wants more money because she thinks she can get it. Not because the job is bigger, but because OP's house is. Even though she is being paid hourly and set her own rates going in.

I liken her to the fence quote our neighbours got last year. A thorough quote was provided, in writing, by an existing company after exact measurements for length were provided and it was agreed what type of posts, etc would be used. Then they came out to have a look. Nothing changed, all good ... except they jacked their prices up by 20-25% overnight as the guy/company "hadn't realised" how much wood would cost him. Total rubbish. He looked at their house and thought they could 'afford' to pay him more. So they said said no. Company guy then complained that they'd 'wasted his time' when he'd been the one taking the piss. Everyone around us knows how they behaved, so won't use that company for fences now.

Another here who wonders whether she meant that she needs more hours to clean.

Timber is really expensive right now though to be fair. I’m not sure you could liken tradesmen to cleaners because they have to factor in a wide range of differently priced materials. Cleaning products don’t cost all that much with cleaning it’s mainly the labour itself you would be paying for.

Don’t agree that it’s unskilled work. I pay my cleaner £19 / hour + seasonal bonuses. She’s worth every penny - she much much much better at cleaning than any of my many years of further education have rendered me.

I understand what you’re saying, that someone can be very good / skilled at cleaning, but in terms of the job description, it is classed as ‘unskilled labour’, which isn’t about being derogatory, it’s just a fact. You don’t need any qualifications to be a cleaner.

No, it isn't.

Cleaning well is a skill. Stop being such a snob.

It really isn’t. You can be average, good or bad at it, but you do not need any qualifications at all. It is classed as unskilled.

Are you getting her through an agency?
If not, it would seem the morse sensible option. Fixed rate, you pay the agency.

😂 I’m a cleaner myself, is that not blindingly obvious. Hardly a snob. What I do is unskilled labour. If you need a qualification to do your job, then it is skilled labour. How is this hard to understand? Thousands of people in this country work in unskilled jobs, such as retail and hospitality. It doesn’t mean you can’t be good at your job, but that is the basic description of a cleaning job.

You are going to need to explain the maths to her. Previous house @£12 she did 3 hours for example = £36 but new house @£12 hour she will do 5 hours so £60 She gets paid more because she is working longer.

Wow that is complex maths. Are you sure a cleaner will understand that?

You don't understand the definition of skilled vs unskilled work.

You're employed, your cleaning isn't! You get paid holidays, sick pay, employers pension contribution, are paid for non chargeable hours, don't have to pay accountants, don't have to pay liability insurance, and are earning entitlements to statutory notice and redundancy. Your self employed cleaner gets no employment benefits, so her hourly rate has to cover pensions, NIC, admin time/cost, insurance, travel, etc etc.

Well if she's our old cleaner, she'll sit on the toilet paying on her phone with the door shut (pretending to clean) to make up the difference... so watch that!