£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?

A number of comments on here are reminding me of a brilliant observation I read in one of those new spoof Ladybird books, where young Peter is taken to an art gallery by his mum.

Peter scoffs at some of the paintings and says "I could have done that!"
His mum replies "But you didn't, did you, Peter?!"

That’s the going rate here too. You need to decide if it’s worth it for you. I have had the same cleaner for nearly ten years, she’s amazing but has to travel a bit to come to me so I cover her travel expenses. Totally worth it IMO. Don’t forget it’s not as if they turn up at one house and clean for 8 hours and go home. They’re not earning whilst travelling from house to house and they need to make a living.

Yeah, great idea if you're able bodied and don't work full time whilst trying to be a parent. I'm disabled and a mum and working full time so would love to be able to afford a cleaner but I can't at those prices. I don't consider it a luxury, more a necessity that I can't afford.

Do you honestly think cleaners do all of these things when most payments are cash in hand?

Exactly, let’s just say I miss the days when I could do all my own cleaning.

Don’t assume everyone using cleaners is physically able to clean. Many are suffering with physical or even mental illnesses.

So it’s unfortunate when people don’t do a good job, especially considering I always ensure things are moved out the way and I do a little pre-clean and provide all the cleaning materials.

I don’t mind paying what I pay for a really good clean though.

I haven’t paid anyone cash in hand since about 2010.

And especially if you’re paying £20+ an hour I’d advise anyone who is paying cash, not to do so!

Cleaning can't be compared to a minimum wage job. It's always been more highly paid because it's such hard physically-demanding work. Although this is if it's done properly, which from what I've seen, it often is done very poorly.

A lot of people still pay cash in hand.

Yeah not a good idea, people need to stop doing that especially when they’re hardly getting a bargain.

and yeah I pay tradesman etc by card or bank transfer too. Never ever paid one cash in hand.

I employ cleaners because I’m disabled. I’ve had a number of arrangements over the years: self employed single person, companies, people (usually students) doing it as a side hustle who are directly employed by me, who I pay through PAYE, with holiday and sick pay and all materials and equipment supplied by me.

Without a doubt the best cleaners I ever had were 2 small companies, but they both folded because they couldn’t make their businesses work on the prices they could charge in my area, which is low waged.

PPs assume that if a cleaner works ‘full time’ she is paid for a full working week, 37 hours or something, but this can almost never be possible. Travel time between jobs can be very significant, clients cancel, or don’t need you any more, and many regular jobs are just a few hours duration each visit. Meeting new clients takes up time and there’s all the time it takes to run your business, including equipment, running a vehicle, liability insurance, personal insurance, sourcing materials etc.

Tbh I think many self employed cleaners are charging far less than they need to, to be viable long term, and they are giving us a present of their underpaid labour. Several self employed I’ve contracted with charge low rates because they have a partner who’s better paid.

I pay about £14 cash an hour in North Manchester. (she won't let me pay her any other way...) I provide cleaning materials and shes not very good, but ok. I doubt she's declaring her income and tbh half the time she cancels on me. I used to pay a tavel allowance to a different cleaner who came from quite far.

My toilet is never left dirty. Cleaning the toilet is one tiny part of what she does...mostly she does the floors, stove, cleans fridge.

Why do you tolerate all that - can’t you find another cleaner or are they all too expensive in your area ?

What do you think is a fair price then?

Majority of people I know who have independent cleaners pay cash. I dont have a cleaner. I am not surprised as Ticket says her cleaner doesnt want any audit trail to her bank account. She certainly wont be paying into a pension, NW etc.

Some people are very naive that this is what happens.

Why do you think people need to “stop doing that” out of interest?

Mind is over £20 and I don’t mind that but she will not be paid by bank transfer under any circumstances. We all know why, although she wouldn’t admit to it.

I don't get why some people are saying that their cleaners aren't very good, and so a lower wage is fair. Aside from the fact that, surely, you would want to find a good competent person for the job and not just settle for any old person whom you know to be a poor worker, you're still paying for their time, even if their work isn't very good.

Your local independent garage will cost more than some bloke up your street who has a bag of assorted random spanners and likes to tinker with engines; but that doesn't therefore mean that the garage is charging too much!

I’ll assume I found all the honest cleaners and tradies who never ask for cash. Lucky me. Even the cleaner I had for years off and on via gumtree didn’t ask to get paid in cash.

But yeah it doesn’t surprise me to hear that some cleaners aren’t declaring half their earnings since I’ve always known many tradesmen who don’t.

It's no different to getting someone to cut your grass and hedge, they will be more than £20 an hour though and will generally be men. Both of these are generally self employed so will have to charge more than the minimum wage per hour

I am mostly bed bound and my DH retired. We have no choice than to pay whatever the rate or our house does not get clean. Comes out of my pip .

I think (good) cleaners deserve every penny.

I'm half heartedly looking for a second job at the moment. I work nights in care as my main job (lots of cleaning and general housework in this as well as care).

I look at care/retail/hospitality/office/ being a TA/production line anything really and think I could do a full shift no problem - I'm reasonably fit. I see the cleaning agency advertising for domestic cleaning and I think I could only do 2 or 3 hours in a day at the pace and energy the customer would expect without being absolutely knackered and aching. Not easy physically to put in 8 hours of high energy professional pace cleaning - and I wouldn't be able to do the job at my own pace knowing the client would be disappointed.

I’m in the SE (Arundel area) and mine is £20 per hour. She brings everything, uses environmentally friendly products and there’s always two of them so do a 2 hour clean in 1 hour. I had a couple of quotes from others for around £16 per hour, but I’d have to supply everything

So it's a bad thing that people can earn a decent living now? You'd rather exploit someone?

Sounds like you can't afford it

You really can’t work out why?

I’ll just copy and paste one of the many recent posts that clearly allude to the reason :

Majority of people I know who have independent cleaners pay cash. I dont have a cleaner. I am not surprised as Ticket says her cleaner doesnt want any audit trail to her bank account. She certainly wont be paying into a pension, NW etc

The prices for a 1 hour clean have increased by £4 per hour since October 2024 with the company my cleaner is from.

I can only afford a 2 hour clean once per fortnight, and when the prices rose by £2 an hour a while back I thought fair enough, but now they increased again by another £2 and I’m thinking I may have to cancel.

I supply all my own cleaning products, and hoover etc, so literally the cleaner turns up and cleans. I don’t expect their wages have increased in the last two years, or if so by £4 an hour. Companies are taking us for mugs. My salary certainly hasn’t increased in the same time.