Is this hourly rate too high?

[Question285]

I’m looking for a cleaner for a couple of hours weekly. I budgeted £18-20 per hour, but I’ve received a quote of £25 per hour. This is an independent cleaner, albeit with a proper set up. AIBU to think that this is a lot?

I’m in the NW in a reasonably affluent area, but it’s not London. Also, we live in a very normal family home. It’s not a job with an NDA in a mansion.

I’ve checked some local sm groups and it seems that £25 per hour is not unheard of, so I don’t think she was trying to put us off.

I understand overheads, tax etc. come out of that, so she’s not left with £25. But I can’t help thinking that I earn less than that gross in a role that took the better part of a decade to train for. It also comes with a lot more responsibility and less flexibility than a self employed cleaner has.

Is this where things are because of minimum wage increases? I’m not saying they were a bad thing, people should be able to live off their wages. But it seems that middle earners salaries have not kept up if for a low skilled job you can earn as much as a high skilled worker.

I wonder if some of the responses would have been different if I mentioned what I do for a living in the op 😄

Self employed. You can't compare with your wage.

Amazes me how little people want to pay to get their skids cleaned off their bog.

You could always go for a cash in hand cleaner with no insurance if it's bothering you.

And that's what cleaners get when employed by a company. The company will charge more.

Cash in hand cleaners will be cheaper but you take damage on the chin.

So really you either pay, risk it, or clean your own house. It's that simple.

Did you reply to the correct post? This doesn’t seem to bare any relation to the comment.
Nobody said hairdressing was simple. Neither is my profession. The discussion is about relative rates of pay and differences in overheads.
If you feel suggesting overheads of £70ph with gross pay of £30ph is reasonable, what is your business area?

It really isn’t. They’re paying two different levels for different income thresholds, not paying NI twice for the same earnings.

I won’t go into how a limited company is a totally different entity from the director. So even if, in reality, the same person pays the employer and employee NI, it’s not paying ‘twice’.

Cleaning is not a qualified professional role, the pay should reflect that.

Some people are really good at it, still doesn't make it a professional role.

Well, how much training do you need to be a Cleaner?
and how much do you need to be say a Lawyer, or a Doctor?

I read it that the OP felt her job was harder and needed more skills? I could be wrong

Of course it’s a starting point… you can always be an employed cleaner.

OP FWIW I think it’s extortionate, I pay £55 for 3 hours and they do a thorough job. I myself am in a professional career and get paid £50 and hour and no, I don’t get sick or holiday pay because I’m also SE. I’d find it difficult to justify paying someone twice of minimum wage for cleaning. What do employed cleaners get near you? As I’d expect a small uplift from that, realistically.

Well it’s simple economics that certain roles attract a higher salary because of the greater degree of skills and training/qualifications required. I could buy a bucket and mop and be a cleaner tomorrow - but if a cleaner wanted to do my job they’d need to study and train for 6 years (4 of which are unpaid and actually cost you money) first. Are you suggesting I should base my rates on the cleaners?

It's not vocational either so no one does it for the love of doing it or because it's what they were born to do.

When you set up a business under any structure you are entitled to charge what you like. The market dictates whether you are over charging or not. If this cleaner can achieve £25, then that's what she is worth. If she wasn't achieving £25 she'd have to lower her prices or get out of the business.

Anyone in business knows that the market always dictates the price. The government doesn't have a list of industries and price caps because there is no need. The customers choose with their wallet, if someone can make billions having started out in business selling vinyl fair play to them. If the market didn't like his prices or offerings he wouldn't have gone on to do other things.

You sink or swim by the value people place in you and your product or service and nothing else.

@MarkingBad quite and OP is entitled to decide this cleaner isn’t worth her rate.

Yes I did reply to the right quoted thread. Your hairdresser firstly doesn't have to base her hourly pay as the same as what your employer has decided your time is worth so I'm not sure why you're deciding the £70 difference has to be overheads to justify her earning more than you at a job you consider "simple". Hence if it's so simple, surely you can cut your own hair?

Oh absolutley and as I suggested in my previous post, they aren't a good match so it's best not to.

I don't contract for people who don't value me, if I start work and find that out I leave because I know it't better to lose that client than know it's going to be impossible to do my job to the very best of my abilities or they are going to quibble at the end of it.

Life is too short for this shit, find people who are compatible whether that's work, friends or love.

I think some people on this thread are stuck in the past when it comes to the job market and value. People are earning 100k a month on onlyfans for posting pictures of their feet, we aren't in the same economy anymore where everyone's jobs are split into a professional/skilled/unskilled rate. If you think you're entitled to a certain rate per hour because of a qualification or skill, go self employed and charge that or take it up with your employer/union if you feel you're underpaid. It might be that the skill you qualified in just is t as valuable in today's market as it used to be.

Good thorough reliable cleaners are like gold dust. If you can afford it pay it

Seems right to me. I'm in central London though.

If there are £70 ph overheads, that’s £175,000.00 per year for a single chair hairdresser then they really are doing something wrong!
Maybe you didn’t read further back for the full comparison to a specialist who has 10yrs formal training, and added experience. Hence you may be making an incorrect assumption. You may have found others minimising the skill required in hair dressing however I have not.

But why have you decided it's £70 worth of overheads? Because youreypaid £30ph everyone else has to be? She could have no overheads and still charge £100ph if she wanted. It's not her fault that your 10 years of training and being a specialist still hasn't put you in a position where you can set your own rate 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve just unilaterally upped my cleaners pay to £17 ph in the SE (oxford). She has worked for us for years. I do actually employ her though so she has holiday pay, sick pay, pension contributions etc. I do think £25 is v high, I don’t know of anyone who pays that around here even for self - employed cleaners.

You sink or swim by the value people place in you and your product or service and nothing else.
I understand that, however, they are the same service workers who complain about immigrants charging lower rates. If they charged an affordable rate then they are less likely to lose customers.
Similar to tradesmen.
They're easily undercut and sunk.
There is always going to be financially well off people willing to throw the maximum rate, most people don't.

I'm in the NW area and this lady is having a laugh. I would say 20 max and probably about 18 is the norm.
Please tell her to jog on and you will definitely find someone more reasonable.

I’m also in the north west but not an affluent area. I pay £20 an hour but it has been that for a while now and I have been expecting it to go up a couple of pounds at least. I don’t provide any cleaning products if that makes a difference cleaner brings her own as she prefers that.

So what do you think the cleaners overheads should be? I'm not a cleaner, I have multiple degrees and over 20 years experience in my field. I am the lead technical expert on customer projects and earn a very good wage. My company sells me for approximately four times my headline salary. So why shouldn't a cleaner charge double the minimum wage to cover her expenses? I'd mainly wonder why a tradesman was only charging £25 ph, I've not paid that low an amount for years.

If you want to ague then let’s go with you way. So next time you see an NHS specialist, who you’ve waited 1yr+ to see is they’re so rare and and highly trained, and paying off huge student debt, and huge insurance incase anything goes wrong … remember to tell them they’re a fool to be vocational and to re-train as a hairdresser because you believe hairdressers deserve to earn more. Then tell them how you want them to care for you.. it’s the only honest and fair thing for you to do x

I get you OP as I’m in a professional role eat ing around £25 ph! However I try to see it as this- I get paid for EVERY hour I’m there, regardless of how many patients I see
(which varies a lot from day to day & can be difficult to predict), I get extra for working unsociable hours, I get good sick pay & generous AL so am better off overall than a self employed service provider who will have unpaid down time between clients , no sick pay, holidays etc.