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.

If you don’t want to pay £25ph, don’t. That’s market forces. If she’s priced herself too highly, she won’t get clients. That’s the rate she has set. If you want a cheaper cleaner, I’m sure you can find one rather than just moaning about someone who is trying to earn an income.

If you put £25 per hour into a contractor equivalent calculator it works out at £37k per year. This is higher than the median average salary in the NW so I would say it is on the high side. It may just be a function of supply and demand for cleaners in the area though.

It’s a tough call, have treatment to be hopefully kept alive or have hair cut. Both are central to well-being.

£15-20/hour is the going rate around me (SW London). All self employed.

Come on, it's not that skilled to clean a domestic house.

I think it is expensive. I’d be willing to pay the same as you. I don’t believe for one minute that every penny in cash is being declared either. And I have a friend who cleans houses and doesn’t have insurance and says most other cleaners she’s know don’t either. But none of them are going to come out and publicly admit that so they charge what they want and people will pay.

And to add to that. I have a friend who’s have several cleaners and she said they’ve all been rubbish. More interested in making shapes with towels and toilet paper than actually cleaning, cleaning around things and wanting the placed practically cleaned before they touch it. I think the tiktok/instagram cleaning accounts are fully to blame for this.

My viewer when employing a cleaner is if it costs less than my hourly rate then I'm saving money. I would be happy with 25 an hour for a cleaner if they had good references.

Ours is a tad more than that but competition for cleaners is high in this area and they are very accommodating and quiet when they clean as I work from home and on calls alot, so can't have disturbances.

25 per hour is a lot. I pay 17.5 per hour in London, providing all equipment and cleaning products. My cleaner is self-employed, very good and professional and was recommended by word of mouth.

i pay £17 ph in N London

I’m in north west, normal semi in ‘affluent’ town, and pay £18.50/hour and have a 3hour clean.

I did have to try three different people before I found someone who did a good job, but they were all around the same price (first was £17.50/hr but I couldn’t tell they’d been) x

For another perspective, I'm in southeastern part of the United States and pay $50.00 per hour.

£15 -£18 is roughly the going rate in London. That seems like a lot.

Omg can you not manage 1hr of cleaning without needing to stop?! Most healthy adults clean their own homes and id bet the majority manage to do so without needing to stop every half hour 😂😂
As aforementioned cleaning an ordinary family home which is regularly cleaned is not hard work. It only becomes hard work if a home has been allowed to get into a state with residues that are hard to remove, stains, thick dust etc.
Cleaning a regularly cleaned home is not tough physical labour 😂😂
It pushing the hoover around, cleaning surfaces with a spray and sponge, wiping down skirting boards, lightly polishing furniture, mopping some floors. Unless these are heavily soiled (unlikely in a regularly cleaned home) this is not hard physical labour 🤣

Crazy isn't it

That's twice my rate in a really pressurised roll in the NHS. I dunno why I bother!

My cleaner charges £25 for 2 hours to do a 4 bed house, near Cambridge!

How much do you get paid

Hang on so cleaners and hairdressers charge too much since they're not as "highly trained" as you but we should all be paid equally? Make up your mind. Perhaps before you get worked up over people you perceive as less skilled as you earning a livable wage you can instead turn your angst at the people at the top who won't put your wages up. Bemoaning people who will clean your toilet or cut your hair earning a wage isn't it.

Also you brought the medical profession into it. For someone so highly skilled your reading comprehension is pretty 💩

You always get people coming on these threads saying they pay their cleaners £30 an hour plus sick pay, holiday pay and bonus, who love to imply that anyone who doesn't is a tighrarsed exploiter. But the fact is you could get a cleaner for a lot less than you've been quoted, and they won't be crap either.

That’s very high … £15 is the norm here in Essex.

Shop around....sounds over priced

£12.50 an hour is very cheap! And just about minimum wage from April 2025. How much can she clean in 2 hours?

Nope, no medics in my account, I was referring to my profession. Only medics in your imagination 😁 Oh you are the sweetest to include a poo emoji. How lovely of you. Please don’t feel too bad tho everyone makes mistakes.

Sorry for assuming you were a medic or in the NHS which is why you posted such hyperbole bringing NHS specialists into it.

LongDarkTeatime · Yesterday 15:14

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