£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?

And they clean really slowly so don't get much done💔

3 years ago I had a cleaner that charged £13 an hour and she was so efficient. I miss her💔

I think part of the problem here is that we want and need services like pet care, child care, cleaning so that we can go elsewhere and work doing something else (if we’re lucky, that we enjoy more than cleaning) but we compare those things to our own income and don’t feel wealthy enough to afford ‘staff’ or to outsource those jobs. Simultaneously, if they don’t get outsourced we can’t go to our jobs or we have to go without children or pets, or overload ourselves with domestic jobs on top of full time work for a salary or wage. So we are all in a low-pay, high-demand bind.

Agree. I have absolutely no problem with someone identifying a gap in the market, offering their (much desired) services and working their socks off to derive a FTE salary from it.

I cannot see what the problem is here....

£35 ph is average here. London/Kent.

Indeed

I believe the usual definition of a professional is someone who, in addition to the usual expectations around conduct, etc, has advanced education and training, and is licensed by some recognised body

That's not to disparage the hard and sometimes very difficult work cleaners do, but I've never met any where the above apply

I have no idea why people say cleaners are unskilled.

Having only recently moved up the ladder of possessions to have things with specific care instructions ie. Chrome taps, stainless steel range, quartz worktops, stone baths. Too much glass and idiot me black taps!

I have to say it’s an art as well as a science and it’s been a learning curve. No way would I want an unskilled teen rocking round.

I pay less than that in the South East. There’s been a little bit of a change of personnel with mine who went back home and put in place some replacements who are in no way as good as the originals. If they increase the price I would probably reconsider them totally. They can obviously charge what they want but if they’re charging top whack they’d better be delivery a premium service ( and mine don’t )

Take it or leave it really, isn’t it? A service is worth as much as someone is prepared to pay for it. Presumably people are prepared to pay it or they’d lower the price.

'Pin money'. If they don't live on their earnings, what DO they live on?

Cleaning needs to be a living wage. You're being a massive CF assuming you can pay a little cash in hand in return for doing a job you don't want to do yourself.

Why else do you think cleaning is better paid now? Because WE don't want to do it.

there is a difference between what is being charged and the hourly rate received. Tax, national insurance, insurance, advertising costs, petrol, pension all have to paid and if you are self employed then there are admin hours, chasing debtors, keeping records for Hmrc etc.

Mine’s through an agency and is security checked. Although not asked to I provide gloves and the odd mask and all cleaning materials. This is just as well as she has to park a short walk away anyway. I pay her parking every week too (usually £3.50 in supermarket car park). She also is a general “helper” but ‘wouldn’t ask her to do anything ‘wasn’t prepared to do myself. It’s £22-3 (?) ph but don’t think she receives all of that. The agency are checking their employees and providing insurance, otherwise I’d have to probably.

I pay £20 an hour in Bramhall which is a “naice” area. She does two hours a fortnight which suits me as I live on my own and I am pretty tidy person.

She provides all her own equipment and cleaning materials and is very hard working, I’ve never seen my bathroom look so good!

I think that’s at the lower end price wise in this area, a few of my friends use an agency and they are dearer.

Absolutely! Not sure why people who are providing this service should work for pin money!

It sounds a lot but then I think it's cheap compared to the guy who cuts our grass. £20 for 20 minutes, he brings the lawn mower, he's not a qualified gardener. Leaves the green waste.

Not comparing 'skill' or anything but on this basis his charge would be £60 an hour compared to £22 an hour for a cleaner. Maybe a cleaner would be more useful to me than a grass cutter, afterall!

Tell me you don’t have a clue without telling me you don’t have a clue.

Cleaners aren’t paid for their commute but they do have to cover the costs of travelling between clients (just like employed people can claim their mileage too).

As well as the annual leave you’ve calculated have to cover all their sick pay, expenses, pension contributions, NI, tax, equipment, time spent doing admin, advertising, chasing up invoices etc.

They also won’t be working a 37.5 hour week because they need to travel between clients, take unpaid breaks, factor in the time spent sat in traffic or avoiding roadworks etc.

But sure, if you think it’s an easy way to earn 43k a year, quit your job and start cleaning toilets yourself 🙄

This !!! You are paying someone to do a job you dont want to do youself , which comes at a cost. Sidenote , i also think carers should earn £20 per hour minimum - their jobs are so demanding and the pay is disgraceful.

I pay £50 for an hour for 3 cleaners. They supply materials. Seems OK to me.

Is my cleaner the only one who walks between her jobs and we provide materials so there are no extra costs? Maybe that is why she charges £15/hour.

My sister is a self employed cleaner and only charges £15 this is despite using her own car (and she travels miles from home), using her own products and cleaning cloths, which she machine washes when she gets home.

I help her occasionally on the big jobs and they are all very large 4-6 bed homes with high end cars in the drive. She has been doing the job for 20 years and says all her customers say they love her and would hate to lose her. I tell her of course they wouldn't want to lose her because at £15 per hour they are taking the piss out of you.

Imo, £20-£22 is more than reasonable for a weekly or as most of her customers have, a fortnightly 2 hour clean.

Whilst I don’t think it’s a particularly professional vocation, it’s still not a particularly nice job is it. Would I want to clean another families toilet for £25 an hour? Not a chance. I really don’t think they can charge less than £20 an hour.

Yes mine is £20ph.

We have 2 hours a week and it’s life changing. Of course I have to clean in between but the house gets nowhere near as dirty and when I’ve spent hours cleaning doing jobs that aren’t even noticeable we then don’t have to spend a day cleaning the house. Gives us so much more time for £40 a week so well worth it imo.

Of course she has extra costs - travel time (even if she’s on foot she’s not earning money), tax, pension, national insurance, holiday pay, sick pay, time spent doing her admin, communicating with clients and chasing invoices. Plus the cost of replacing her clothes etc.

Cleaning is literally their profession, so yes, that is how words work.

I think that's fair enough in London.

The rest of the uk i wouldn't want to spend much over 15, to non aagency.agency.

But then I don't have a cleaner! I'd love one but can't afford it!

It's one thing if people can't afford a cleaner - it is, after all, generally an enormous privilege to have one - but another to see people bemoaning self-employed workers trying to cover their own costs and make a living.