£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?

As it should be, who cleans their skirting boards every damn week? She is not a CF, you are. Expecting someone to clean your house for a pittance.

to be fair, on occasion people ask me to sew things for them. I think of a number, triple it and then say "plus materials" and so they go away.

If anyone called my bluff i'd be a) stunned and b) quadruple the number next time it happened (but i would sew it)

Mine is £18 per hour. East Yorkshire.
Worth every penny.

North Scotland mine is 20ph, it’s fair for what she does, and ridiculous to try and compare it to salaried roles like nurses it’s chalk and cheese, you’ve got to pay insurance all sorts of costs lack of sick pay and holidays etc

Cleaning is a luxury service, so you pay luxury prices.

What's so difficult to understand?

Of course it requires skill. An unskilled cleaner would have 0 clients.

Why are you and others so obsessed with comparing the salary to completely unrelated professions? My DH works in a trade and earns significantly more than the average doctor and he never even went to college. Is that also unfair? Is he also unskilled?

And what about the unpaid travel time? The hours you spend doing your admin, your paperwork and on chasing clients for money? Not to mention the lost pay from when clients lock you out, or cancel, or take a holiday themselves.

If you think all these cleaners are rolling in it and living a life of luxury, you can always quit your job and start your own cleaning company 🙄

Mine charges £25.50 (independent, non-agency), which is really steep in my opinion, but I really just needed the help. Her standard is mediocre, but we’ve struggled to find anyone decent, and therefore just looked at it as extra help and I would sort out any loose ends myself. She’s now told us that she’s going up to £29.50, which feels like a real piss-take for the outcome we get, so I’m cancelling.

And passed on to the client…

It’s just jealousy. People don’t think anyone “unskilled” should have the audacity to earn a good living 🙄

I get it all the time as a dog walker - apparently it’s not work and anyone could do it 🤷‍♀️

How much would you change for scrubbing a strangers toilet?

It’s always a race to the bottom with you guys. Nurses should be paid much more than they are. That doesn’t have a bearing on how much anyone else should be paid!

Agreed. For what it's worth I certainly wouldn't be able do your job.

Same for music teacher. It’s just a “hobby” for “pin money” (🤢) and they can learn for free from a YouTube video 😆

What unpaid travel time ? We all have to travel to work . I have worked as a cleaner by the way both for a company and individual. You pick your clients by areas so you este less time , in the years I’ve done it I only had one unpaid client and you do self employment taxes once a year or organise monthly none is hard work . Come on by all means account all time but let’s not make something uncomplicated in complicated . It’s not . If you account everything tell me how long are doctors , solicitors , nurses paying off their student loans . To be me fair maybe we should account that on their wages too

So what ?
Presumably they are charging the prices they know people are willing to pay
They are not goung to charge less because Nurses and teachers get paid less that would be daft.

No the issue is yes maybe if nurses salaries or solicitors salaries started at £35 or £40 an hour then it would be fair but what I’m seeing is firefighters , teachers , nurses , solicitors all riddle with debt and someone with no training as. A leaner getting paid more than them . It’s the fairness of it , as it is for other roles ,factory workers asa example get paid minimum wage and so some of the hardest work around much worse than any cleaner .

Seems reasonable to me.

I pay £20 an hour and my cleaner is very skilled at cleaning and takes pride in doing all the extra little jobs like dusting the top of doors (who knew?)

This is not a high wage and cleaners are not raking it in.

Anyone tempted by the high cleaning wages should become one! Thought not...

Payment to a self employed person is not only their wages. They have to cover insurance and overheads as well as the fact they aren't paid for travel time. Some days will have inefficient bookings eg a 2 HR and then a 3 HR miles away that use up the whole day. It's easy to see why to make a living from it equivalent to FT NLW you'd need to raise the hourly fee.

I am a professional in a different field which can be stressful. I also own a holiday cottage which I clean myself on a Friday with another cleaner. She's a self employed web designer the rest of the week. We enjoy our 5 hours on a Friday - mostly. It is hard work but doesn't require brain power. The only responsibility is to provide a spotless house. We get to chat over bed making and other joint jobs. We both consider it a rest from our other jobs.
I also do all the laundry and ironing - 4 bed house.
Yes, I acknowledge that cleaning a holiday cottage is easier than a home because there isn't all the crap and possessions to navigate.
My cleaner charges £16 an hour, properly invoiced and into her bank account.

All of this

People on here moan about the cost of child care and Cleaning because it's considered women's work so unfairly seen as low status and low paid.

This "oh but a nurse gets paid less.."
This isn't a race to the bottom ..
And I am a nurse of 25 plus years and I support this cleaners fee.

Tbh right after I posted that I had the same thought. 😄Maybe I should have typed 'bodily secretions' to be more accurate. 😄

Why are u assuming that all the people that employ cleaners are on PAYE

Mine is 15 per hour cash. She does approx 5hrs per week for a 3 bed place. Mine is more cluttered than dirty and she just is fantastic for my mental health. Shes here now and just looking up at my spick and span living room is priceless! I have friends who have cleaners for around 8hrs a week who do cooking as well.