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?

That’s a reference that not a lot of people on this thread are going to get, I barely remember it and I’m deeply middle aged.

Many people debate a job with less stress, then they stick to doing what they’re doing. I know not all people will do that but more people will stay in the position they’re in, like yourself… you’ve debated it but haven’t actually done it

It's not a salary though, it's a charge for services from a business.

Should they take home more per hour than a nurse or teacher? Because they certainly are at £27 an hour, even with overheads deducted.

I think £20 an hour is a good rate. I wouldnt pay £25 an hour - thats too much.

Keep looking. There are good cleaners out there. If you have a local FB group of similar ask for recommendations on there.

Yes I agree that to keep looking is a good idea.

I would see £27 an hour as the "I saw you coming" rate for people with more money than sense.

And yet many, many people can and do pay it, so you can pout all you want about the price.

I didn't mention skill or professionalism. I specifically talked about value.

London is not the centre of the universe. Supply and demand is different in different parts of the country. London isn't the most expensive, with reducing prices the further away you get from it.

Pay is all about supply and demand.
It’s not about student debt and some arbitrary value, it’s simply what someone is willing to pay for a good or service.
If they need the work more than the person paying needs the service at that rate, the price will come down.

It’s that simple.

Jesus your post is awful.

They can charge what they want. They have to run a car with business insurance, and they have to consider the driving time in between.
Personally, I wouldn’t care if they were half an hour late as long as I knew they were still coming. I would assume they hit traffic

Nothing in my message suggested that “London is the most expensive”. However, it’s widely recognised that many things are more expensive in or around London. For example, my friends in London who pay for tutors for their children pay about £100/hr, but friends in Hampshire or the midlands pay about £50/hour. Your post was unnecessary.

I think Jesus has more deserving humanitarian crisis than my reluctance to pay £25 p/h for cleaning.

Yes. London has the highest cost of living and thus people need to be paid better to earn a living wage in London.

They definitely can charge what they want and they definitely will fill up their schedule quickly so I don’t think it’s up to anyone except the cleaners themselves what they want and need to charge to run their business properly.

As long as they’re fully booked why would it matter to them what other people think they should charge in their dreams?

Also when cleaners give you a time slot they are giving you an estimated time window for they arrival, it could never be an exact time because their job involves loads of variables such as traffic and travel delays during the day so they’re giving you an ETA not a specific time. It doesn’t work like that.

It doesnt matter really ,assuming they are self employed. they can charge what they want ,other people will either pay for the cleaners services or they wont
Whinging about being more educated and not being paid more is irrelevant.

Just because you have a first class degree and Top Alevels doesn't mean you automatically earn more then a heating engineer

No. These people made an appointment to quote. It wasn’t a drop in service.

Oh ok sorry, I missed that it was the appointment to price up, I thought you meant the actual cleaning spots. Ok I agree that it’s unprofessional to be late for that because I do understand that would affect your own plans.

What is meant by ‘drop in service’ though?

The Minimum Income Standard (on which the Real Living Wage of £13.45 is based) has been calculated as the minimum amount someone needs to earn to have a minimally acceptable standard of living. Applying a 14% premium to that figure to account for statutory minimum holidays takes that rate above £15/h. And that’s not accounting for lack of access to statutory sick pay; pension etc. Being self-employed doesn’t magically make you able to subsist on a lower income than salaried workers.

£20 would be the max but £15 seems more realistic when you compare with what people get paid for other manual work jobs plus adding on the business overheads

By the time you take into account overheads (at £15 p/h are you expecting them to provide their own equipment, cleaning materials etc), travelling time, petrol, PL insurance etc, £15 probably doesn't even cover minimum wage. Plus there's no holiday pay/pension/sick pay etc.

£15 is definitely not realistic. If you are an employee paid £15 p/h then fair enough - you'll get pension/holiday etc. But self-employed don't. Would you clean someone else's mess up for less than minimum wage and no holiday pay? Would you be happy to know you were paying someone less than minimum wage?

What these multiple posts fail to acknowledge is that the hourly price I’m being quoted IS an anomaly. The quotes I am receiving are unusually high.

Remember that if they are self employed, they don't get holiday or sick pay and will still pay tax. They also likely don't benefit from salary sacrifice schemes etc which many others do have access to. It's not fair to compare like for like with your employed salary where you also likely get a pension, annual leave, sick pay etc.

Are cleaners not allowed a holiday? Or pension?

And?
She can charge £1000 / hour if she wants obviously that would be ludicrous and nobody would taker her up on her services
But what her rates are ,are nothing to.do with you
You either hire her or you dont.

And….?
it means that £25 is neither the going rate nor the basic necessity to survive which is the basis of alot of the comments on this post.