Cleaners - tardiness and fees?

[SpringDreams26]

I have moved house, 15 miles but a different county.

I paid £20 per hour for a cleaner who was with me several years and wonderful. She continued to clean for a few months to help us but couldn’t keep up with the travel so gave me notice. She cried when she left she was genuinely fantastic and we got along so well.

Now everyone is charging £25-27.50 per hour. Even self employed, one woman bands. AIBU to think that’s madness? I come out with about £30 after taxes earning £50 an hour. Cleaning used to be marginally above minimum wage and now it seems the same cost as a professional? Not to say cleaners aren’t professionals, but the start up costs and overheads low.

Then you have to weed out the awful cleaners, I’ve had many in my time who just move dirt around.

Had 4 people quote ALL have been late by atleast 30 minutes. If you want to justify your rate atleast show up.

and yes, I know the answer is to do my own cleaning. But AIBU that the market has changed this much?

It must have done because if people weren’t paying it, they wouldn’t be charging it.

Either that or a shadowy cabal of cleaners get together periodically to fix their prices; but that seems unlikely.

Our cleaner charges £15 per hour and hasn’t put it up at all since she started a couple a years ago.

@Sparklespecs it does strike me though that every cleaner I’ve approached has a 4 hour slot per week for me.

I am surprised that especially given the climate people can justify £25-27.50 per hour for a clean. It also doesn’t make sense when agencies charges as much as sole traders as you’re cutting out the middleman.

It is what it is, I just can’t believe how pricey it is from one county to another. Yet Nannies/babysitters still £15 p/h which makes no sense to me - even the DBS checked ones!

Cleaners have to pay taxes too if they are earning over the threshold so YABU to compare your net rate to their gross.

It must vary by area because we are in South Norfolk and our current cleaner is £18 per hour and the last one before that was £13 per hour but was part of an agency so we paid £3 per hour direct to the agency.

Have you looked around recently, the cost of everything has gone up.

Thats about the going rate these days.

You say overheads being low, they still have to pay for insurance, fuel, repairs etc on their car, clothes to work in, products if they bring their own, accounting fees, etc.

Good cleaners are hard to find but worth every penny if you dont want to or cant do the cleaning yourself.

Shame you couldn’t just pay the old cleaner more to
make her travel worth it. They are obviously worth what they charge though, or people wouldn’t pay it.

Self employed is self employed, no matter what you do to earn your coin..overheads are not low. Everyone pays their dues.

You could always do your own cleaning. That'll save you some coin.

They have to pay for their transport (and associated expenses if driving), supplies, insurance, taxes, time and money spent advertising for clients ...and then from what's left over they need to cover their living expenses. I mean, have you seen how much rent is these days?

It sounds like you don't value their work as much as your own and are resentful at them being paid as much as half of what you earn.

(Also, did a bit of a double-take at one of the words in the title there!)

We gave her an hour to travel in which we paid at her usual rate. But she found the variability of the traffic stressful. As sometimes it took her 20 mins longer if there was a queue on the motorway so she struggled to plan her day. She did it for several months, but also had a bereavement and on a particular day was held in up traffic. I think it was a combination of stressful phase of her life with the bereavement and the traffic.

Im self employed and my overheads are vastly different. Overheads vary significantly from one business model to the next.

I value their work. But don’t agree they warrant a professional wage comparable to someone who’s racked up student debt and spent many years studying, in that instance I’d rather do my own cleaning!

It is definitely regional. My best friend is still paying £15 and hour and my prev cleaner works for two of my friends (who were recommended by me) and is still charging them £18.50 (we paid extra as a tip).

What do you pay out differently to any other self employed person?

There are cleaners with student debt, you know. The job market is shit and self-employment gives you some control over that.

I run a couple of businesses and have my main profession - but the most obvious is I need a premises, business rates, utility costs, I have a practising certificate and have to attend CPD (approx 16 hours a year).. None of those costs are also true of a self employed cleaner..

Yes I understand that truth I have just been surprised at quite HOW different it is 15 miles down the road. But yes. It’s more affluent around here.

Yes - I understand, but they won’t have a degree in cleaning so didn’t accrue that debt in the course or in preparation for their profession so it’s not essential for the role.

I don’t agree it’s irrelevant, for me, it makes them either easier to replace or a service I am prepared to forego.
The same isn’t true of my dentist. I wouldn’t do my own root canal because their charges went up.

You've got all that going on but only come out with 30 quid an hour?

Surely cleaners are charging what they're worth and you're not in that case?

It always seems to be the ones who think something like cleaning should be shit wages because your own wages are shit. Instead of thinking that you might be underpaid yourself.

@Sparklespecs I like the idea of a 'cleaners cartel'

My profession pays around £30 an hour after tax. My business interests aren’t measured in an hourly wage because they’re totally different entities which I don’t need to get into. I am a solicitor by trade.