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.

exactly, this all refers to my profession. If you only know of medics who this can apply to, that’s your issue. So would you be a scatological medic then?

Sack your job off and become a cleaner then OP. Start with your house and you'll have saved money before you even get started.

You're just making it really obvious why you don't have the skills to work in a private market. You may think your hairdresser is worth less than you but she can probably follow a conversation.

Yeah, how about no.

I'd rather have those hours back every week to reading a book, go out for a meal, be with friends or walking/cycling or any of the other things I earn a living to enjoy.

😂 keep your toys in the pram. It’s ok to get defensive when you realise they missed out the bit in training about not being the only highly qualified professionals in healthcare. Now you know and can move on from there (wait til you hear about the title … but that’s for another day my scatological friend)
Bye x

Cleaners also require;
Insurance
Accounting costs
Cleaning supplies (cost of livings gone up)
Petrol/transport
Covering the cost of generating sales, invoicing, admin time
Covering when theyre off sick or on holiday
If they have employees theyll be paying;
NI employer rates
Employer insurance
Payroll software cost
Expenses/mileage
Advertising, vetting, recruiting for staff

It's not cheap running a business, nor is it easy. Also, that's what she charges, maybe she's amazing, you don't have to pay it if you don't want to.... our cleaner charges £20ph, she just pays herself and her friend as a sole trader but still has to use her own time to work out all the payments required, send and chase invoices, drive to the shop to get all her supplies and restock, visiting homes to quote, advertising her services etc etc. I know her, she lives across the road and she is not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, rarely has a holiday (never abroad), has 3 kids in a 2 bed house and her husband works too. I don't begrudge a penny and pay a christmas bonus too, I don't think £25 is extortionate, it's a tough job and we clearly don't want to do it because we pay!

If she has professional qualifications, surely it should be. Unskilled jobs always attract lower wages. It doesn’t mean the person is of lower value, or that the work isn’t valuable, but the deferred gratification of years at University and in training, combined with the limited number of people with that expertise is worth more money.

Trained and qualified for 5 years in agriculture, inc. cpd. It's usually paid nmw.

Id stand agriculture against any industry and profession you can name and tell you it is of vital importance to the nation.

We are in south wales , I pay £30 for an hour for two women to come in and do our three bathrooms , we were getting quotes of £65 for two hours one cleaner ( some only do a minimum two hours here )

I have been self employed most of my life so I see past the initial quote ,but also understand it’s about affordability and your own budget.

wage
tax
Ni
products
car
petrol
Sick
A/L
DBS
accounting / book keeping
uniform
Bank account fees ( most have business accounts )
replacement items that can break such as hoover

mobile phone contract
advertising

^^ these are the main I’m sure there’s a few other things . I think the thing you have to look at is that you want a job doing that you can’t / don’t have time to do so you have to look at it in that way.

I also understand the frustration of how much money someone has potentially put into themselves to train and receive education to get the higher wage .

cleaning is hard graft ( done it myself many years ago ) for us personally and our budget we couldn’t pay more than £20 a hour this isn’t to say they’re not worthy of it but just rat you can’t afford / justify it x

You really can’t compare the hourly rate of a self employed person to a PAYE.
As a PAYE employee, I get sick pay, guaranteed salary, generous pension contributions etc.
Trying to save for any kind of pension as a self employed person is really really difficult.

Also, there’s not really any such thing as a low/unskilled job. I’d have to be seriously trained up to be able to clean other peoples homes for payment. I say that as someone with two masters degrees. All jobs are important and skilled

Your framing of the issue is bizarre. We live in a capitalist society and she's evidently charging what the market will bear. That's not related to what your salary is. It could be, in some circumstances, like if the pool of potential customers was small enough to make it necessary. But it's not.

Again just proving you have no skill to trade in a private market(yet?) and that you're clearly not that highly sought after in your profession, which is why you earn less than people you think are less than you whether you think they deserve it or not...

😂😂😂