£22 per hour for cleaning - REALLY?!

[DorotheaShottery]

I was thinking the other day "Dot - you've had enough of this cleaning lark - get yourself a cleaner!"

I put some feelers out on FB and it appears the going rate is £20-£22 per hour!!

Is that normal in the not-SE-not-Cheshire parts of the UK? AIBU to think it's ridiculous?

I agree to an extent, but you do need to shop around.

My usual plumbers wanted to charge me £500 inc VAT to change a bath tap (and I supply the tap).

I found someone who did it in half an hour and charged me £150 (I supplied the tap).

I think it's a lot about how some people look down on manual workers.

Your OP says you had had enough of this cleaning lark. 🤔

I don’t think you had any intention of hiring a cleaner, you’re just someone who is annoyed at their hourly rate. On the slim chance you were actually thinking of hiring one, a cleaner where you are has dodged a bullet because you would have been a terrible client with your attitude.

I think an hour of someone’s time
is worth £22. It doesn’t seem Ludacris to me!
It would probably have a huge benefit to your schedule / mental load. I’d spend way more on a face cream so I would definitely spend £50 on someone who would be such a help to me.

Why is it ludicrous? Do you expect cleaners to live on fresh air?

Some interesting posts on here, i.e. cleaner is a luxury (I agree) - no, it is not a luxury, I have absolutely no time for domestic chores, a cleaner is a must for me, I am far too busy (not to busy to waste time on Mumsnet regularly and enthusiastically). I love MN!

People seem to think the cleaner should be doing it for them as a favour.

These threads seem to pop up every few months. I find it so strange that people are surprised about this. Surely it is supply and demand and the going rate is what people are willing to pay for the service? Why would they charge any less than that, just out of the goodness of their hearts?

Generally it's certainly a privilege to have a cleaner.

I dont think its that simple
You would need to build up a client base ,and have a good reputation
I clean my own house but whats good enough for me
Wouldnt stand up to other peoples expectations.

Exactly. A proper good cleaner will go above and beyond to clean the areas where most people dont think about. They clean the disgusting things most people dont want to do, including toilets and bathrooms and disinfect the touchpoints people don't think about. I think it is a skill to be a very good cleaner. Its not right that they should be haggled down, minimum wage is nothing in this day.

Then following on with claims on people in such positions fiddling the tax man and child support.

Without a doubt, some people do this - although none of the many decent, honest ones do; and I'm assuming virtually none of the female workers do.

I had a cleaner who told me it would be £35 an.hour hour the whole job as I wanted her to dust the kitchen cabinets! So £25 an hour went up by £10 for something that probably takes 15 minutes tops. I found this very confusing. Surely you are paid by the hour to clean?

I've given up on cleaners. Where I am they are in demand so mostly seem to think they can do a poor job. I really need someone- I am a cleaner myself and simply can't face cleaning when I get home.

Why is it ludicrous? Cleaners are in high demand for good reason and over time its physical work.

Mine is £15 per hour plus parking (parking charges around here are ridiculous).

Ouch Flip you're a bit narky!

I was surprised at the price and thought I'd chat about it on a ... chat forum.

It's fine to say cleaners are professionals but they are not part of a profession and I think £22 is too much. I'm not de-valuing their work - it's just not worth it to me.

The next one was more interested in making bows out of my towels and doing silly stamps on my toilet roll. She then put photos of my house on Instagram without my permission.

I bet she's on MN! And she's probably the same person who makes all those weird videos that are designed to go viral titled 'Wow, I can't believe nobody ever showed me how to do this before!' - where she demonstrates the 'essential skill' of how to push paperclips through a washing up sponge and then glue a KitKat and half a dozen rawl plugs on to it before gently stroking your curtain pole with it and then giving it to your bewildered pet budgie to wear as a necklace.

I am constantly amazed on these threads at the number of self described professionals who claim not to understand the difference between an employee hourly rate and a service charge from someone running a business. Especially when those professionals are on the full public sector package of employer provided benefits on top of their hourly rate.

Always good also to see a women centred forum rubbishing cleaning, housekeeping and childcare as “unskilled” to justify low wages and yet somehow jobbing gardening and handymen (no qualifications needed) are skilled.

Almost like women’s work isn’t valued by their higher earning sisters.

Well you havent sacked them nor have you employed them as they are self employed
You have just decieded not to use their services agsin which is your perogative.

Many minimum wage workers eg in hospitality are on zero hours contracts so have none of these.

I agree... but isn't the vast majority of dust basically stuff that has at some point come off people?!

As a comparison, a degree educated paramedic who has been qualified for 5 years gets £24.61 an hour (before tax/insurance etc).

It’s hard work and a lot of people don’t fancy cleaning other peoples toilets. The standards required of a professional cleaner in a fixed time period take experience and knowledge to achieve and are very different to what your mum and dad will let you get away with at home. A lot of babysitting is sitting on a sofa doing your thing while your charges sleep.

Most teenagers wouldn’t fancy it and they wouldn’t be up to it. I think a lot of householders would be skeptical about their abilities anyway.

Yeah but they are subject to agenda for change and not self employed so there is no comparison.

Again - that is an employee hourly rate not the hourly service charge for a business.

The paramedic will also be on the full package of public sector benefits on top of their salary and not be paying the running costs of a business out of that £24.61.

Do you assume that quotes from eg the plumber simply represent their hourly rate of pay?