what is the going rate for a cleaner?

[keresley]

I need a cleaner to clean my house and do my ironing. I have no idea how much cleaners cost. Can you please enlighten me? Thanks

Oops sorry I pressed post for some reason! ^

we are a cleaning company and charge around £15 per hour this will be going up to around £18 per hour when we have to add VAT in a month or so.

All our cleaners are employed, trained and equipped by us, we are not an agency who send out self-employed cleaners to clients (that is a much cheaper business model to run but prone to client dissatisfaction so we went for the higher end, fully managed service!)

Margins are extremely tight in this industry - I am on the panel of a cleaning association so I know our members and fellow cleaning business owners share my pain with this issue. We pay more than minimum wage, averagely £8 per hour as we expect them to detail clean and deliver our high standards at every clean. Overhead is quite high as we buy very professional equipment and supplies to look after our clients and staff the best way we can and then their is costs of office rental, admin staff, uniforms etc but by far the biggest expense is the cost of employing our staff, self employed labour can be cheaper as there are not the huge costs of the statutory requirements to pay for such as holiday pay etc, if we don't factor in these we will not be viable.

Fortunately there is a huge market for our services and we very often have to run a waiting list whilst we hire and train again! I have to admit the speed at which we are heading for the VAT threshhold is scary!

If a company charges less than us I can only see them being viable if they pay the minimum wage, the overheads would eat all the profit otherwise.

Domestic cleaning is not a 'get rich' industry, to do what I do you need to have a passion for this particular sub-sector of the industry, I love it because I really love the clients, it's such a personal service and we are allowed into their homes, we are given the kindest feedback and it makes us feel so happy we have helped them so much in their lives. You need to care very much for people to get things right! Domestic cleaning is all about warm relationships whereas commercial more about well ... just cleaning.

I apologise I've only just read the full thread (I'm in the office lol)

I would just like to address the fact that the amount the cleaning service (including individuals just setting up) charge is the PRICE not their WAGES to two are separate and very different figures.

Their wages are whatever is left when all the other costs are taken out - including mileage which I forgot to mention above that's a massive expense, there is insurance too, not so expensive as all I have mentioned but there are SO many things you need to consider to make sure you are left with a wage.

When it's done correctly overhead is high and margins are tight. Luckily clients will pay what we need as most understand this.

We pay £11.50ph with a local agency in the South East. However a friend of mine told me yesterday she is paying DOUBLE that amount with a national chain. She said it's for peace of mind as they are fully insured... I didnt tell her but I think that's pure madness - my local agency is also fully insured and each cleaner personally vetted and selected by the owner of the company who periodically attends the cleans to check up on their cleaning standard and gets stuck in herself.

(To me, it's like saying "oh I'd never get my sausages from a local family run farm shop because if I get them from Tesco I know that it's met official food standards". Well I wonder which ones are more likely to be dodgy horse meat...!)

my cleaner is self employed
10£/h
london

I wouldn't be happy to pay anyone less that living wage plus expenses as I want a person who's going to stick around for more than five minutes. I'm currently looking for a cleaner and am expecting to have to pay in the region of £12 per hour (Wiltshire, fairly posh bit )

I'd rather have a single cleaner or a pair who always work together as I'd be happier to build up a long term relationship with an individual than a constant succession of students/temps.

I Work for a small cleaning business. (Self employed) I'm paid £9 an hour. We don't get paid traveling time so my wages are calculated on the amount of hours I clean for. So still meets min wage. My boss charges £13 per hour. We supply all our own products, cloths.
I also pay all my own tax and full stamp NI
I'm in Hampshire.

I pay my cleaner £10 per hour. I provide all the cleaning equipment and she is paid directly, so recieves all of the money. She pays her own tax and nI and only works in a one mile radius of her house so travel is minimal. cornwall

I pay £10.50 through an agency (East Mids). They provide the cleaning products unless I want something specific.

They do have a dodgy disclaimer about insurance though….

In fact can anyone tell me whether they're trying it on re the insurance. They have said they can only claim for damage of over £500 and have been unable to find any policy which says anything different.

That can't be right surely

Waves at Pauline - I'm in sunderland too :-)

We're still doing up our house so no point in getting a cleaner yet but will do if it's ever finished.

Ideally I'd like someone to come and just be able to see what needs doing every week (I go to see my grandad every week and just see what needs cleaning and do it iyswim)

Is that realistic or do you have to leave lists every week?

I just let my cleaner get on with it unless there's something specific I want to ensure is done.

mayfriday - it depends on the relationship you have with the cleaner, tbh. Your standards/ideas of what needs doing and their's may differ and so if you leave him/her to it you might come home from work or wherever and expect to see x job done but they've done y instead.

My cleaners have always had a standard routine of jobs to do (set by me) which they do every week, with extras once a month (skirtings, inside of windows etc). That way I know the jobs I want doing will get done and it is clear what is required. If there is any time left over, they have usually done any extra bits they can see that are 'off list'.

I pay £10 an hour directly to my cleaner in London. I don't think that's excessive, it's not pleasant work and I think the pay should reflect that. You also have to consider the fact that they do a few hours at a time and travel between clients so it's not the same as someone working an 8hr shift at £10ph.

I pay £10 per hour and supply cleaning products (Herts). I am thinking of suggesting that she ups her prices though as this seems quite cheap.

I have just been quoted 20 ph in the SW for a team of 2, so 10 ph per cleaner.

Hi my house is slowly getting on top of me with being a full time carer to my husband and autistic son and also being mummy to 3 other too. Would a cleaner do a deep clean then ease down to a normal routine.

caremummy any service operating on a professional above board level should provide an 'initial clean' to blitz the house first and then maintenance cleans to keep the house up-together.

Newish operations may not yet be aware of this but they will soon find out it is necessary to get on top of things the first time.

Some will do a deal on the initial cleans as long as you are to hire them on a regular basis afterwards. Some will charge out all the hours they take to do that clean though, it just depends on their service model.

I think one way to tell if they pay tax is whether they insist on cash in hand or will accept a cheque. I pay mine £9ph cash, I beat her down from £10ph as I don't think someone should get that much and not pay tax. I'm in London NW3. It sounds like mine is relatively cheap but maybe there's more competition here, not sure.

Davros what you are doing and what she is doing is illegal, I know it is a lot cheaper to pay some £9 per hour 'under the table' but it comes with massive risk attached for both parties.

Apparently my friend at the cleaning association who trades in London says the industry is up against a lot of cleaners trading illegally like this in London but once she was established as a company with a great reputation she was easily able to charge out their services at £16 per hour. It did affect her at first though.

I am not judging here I just think it is super risky for clients to hire tax dodgers with no insurance and also it can be off-putting for legal organisations to be up against such cheap competition when they know to make their legitimate operation work with a future they need to be charging double that amount.

Any cleaning services out there thinking of lowering their rates to compete with the £10 per hour 'cash in hand' brigade, I advise push through and find clients who will pay for a reputable and fully covered service which is safe for them, there are many out there and you will then find there is a future in your business. Let the ones who want cheap dodgy services say 'no' to your price. Take the ones who say yes, they will stay with you forever and you will become fully booked after a few months and then can start the hiring process knowing you have the income to cover this. You will go nowhere fast charging £10 per hour - you'll be fullly booked in a couple of months but have not the income to hire anyone to help you.

as a business owner when you cost it all out you will see that with all the employee costs such as holiday pay and other statutory pay employees will cost you plus all the cost of doing business you will be lucky to break even at £10 per hour. Move to the paying customers and do things legally and with integrity for everyone's peace of mind including your own.

Interesting, I've never given It much thought. In my experience of having cleaners for 25 years or so is that it is absolutely standard to pay cash in hand and leave it to the cleaner to work out what (s)he should do about tax. But we all know they are unlikely to be paying tax. I'm fairly sure that nearly all my friends pay CIH and have done so for many years, I will do some canvassing. The only time I used an agency they were useless, broke an antique bowl and threw the bits in the bin without saying anything and cost too much for little performance. That was 10 or so years ago so maybe they have improved. What you say has really made me think though and I take everything you say on board. DH owns his own business and if that sector was swamped with people under cutting him illegally we would be outraged. I may make a change but if I have to pay £16ph then I am most likely to get rid completely and manage without.

£12/hr here and I provide all the materials. Amazing to see the variance on this thread!

Lots of cleaners don't pay tax. If you're earning £10 p/hr, 23 hours per week, 46 weeks per year, you don't earn enough pay tax and many cleaners do it because it fits in with school etc, so work fewer hours than that.

Tied, does that not just mean the cleaners get £3.35 each for their half hour (min wage) and the company take £2.30?

I'm not mad on the 'agency' model where they just send out self-employed cleaners although I do appreciate they have lower running costs and can charge cheaper prices. It would be tempting to follow this model but I wanted to do something more comprehensive.

We are a fully managed private company and employ all our staff which allows us the legal control to train and equip them safeguarding our clients from untoward practices. For example we have a strict breakage procedure.

I cannot see how a company can survive if their cut is just £2.30/hour unless they are indeed just an agency who simply match-make.

Before anyone thinks I'm judging agencies, I'm really not I do appreciate and respect the work entailed in running these operations too. It just wouldn't be for me, that's all.

Actually, I'm not sure why my cleaners tax paying is anything to do with me. I only pay her £36 pw. If she earns enough elsewhere to pay tax why does it affect me? Having said that, I still may think again and get rid.

Davros it is her responsibility to register herself as self employed and submit her tax returns but upon research there have been cases where tax dodgers have been caught (usually by a tip off or something) then HMRC have decided the client to be the 'employer' of the cleaner and backpay any tax or NI they should have been withholding.

It is highly unlikely she would only have one job when the demand for cleaning services far exceed supply and if she charges £9 per hour she'll be bombed. I just can't imagine she is earning below the lower earnings threshold and even so it needs to be declared to Inland Revenue on a tax return to be considered above board.

I think the main risk in hiring these types is that you are allowing someone who will operate illegally into your home, very often with a key when you are at work they will see all your possessions and valuables. I would prefer honest people with integrity to come into my home, I couldn't trust someone who would defraud the country by hiding income.

Also they would be unlikely to have any public liability insurance in place so what if they left the gas on and your home blew up or they caused a flood? Legit cleaners are covered by up to a million. Not so those working illegally. They are not aware of health and safety and then many have sued homeowners after an accident. in our case that is MY liability not yours but with these people it is all yours and by God don't they just know it, some have a direct line to Personal Injuries for You - no win no fee!

All our clients pay us directly into the bank, I will not allow cash payments at all as, for one thing it shows we don't keep certain payments quiet from the tax man and for another, admin is so much easier if the client pays into the bank direct instead of paying the cleaner cash who has to pass it to us and then we have to put it through the bank. We are fully insured for every eventuality too including our employees bodies as long as they were following our health and safety trained procedures.

You know it is strange that in London that it is almost the norm to hire these types of people I didn't realise it was so 'normalised', I know they are out there and I once asked the director of our domestic cleaning association about them, he said he didn't think there was much of it about nowadays although his business is in Birmingham. I suppose it doesn't affect us too greatly as we are selling to a different market but it is the underbelly of our industry, there are cowboys within every trade I guess.

Davros I really appreciate you hearing my (our) views on this as I represent everyone who is struggling to set up a cleaning service to be proud of, I went through similar struggles myself at first and I feel the pain of the newer start-ups up against such downward pressure on their price before they tap their true market.

I think one thing that puzzles us all about this issue is that, although most people live within a certain budget as they must, we feel cleaning should not be the thing to skimp on price as you are letting this service into your very home, with all your possessions and valuables, they hold a key to your house (we are insured up to a million for key holding - are they?). What's more they are untrained to use the harsh chemicals they must correctly, they are not aware of health and safety (but WILL be aware of Personal Injuries For You - oh yes!) Cheap can work out to be VERY expensive.

It's everyone's own choice as to what risks they would or wouldn't take in life but just be aware of these risks and be a little discriminating as to who you allow to deliver this highly personal service for you. We personally don't need any more business right now for ourselves (until we grow again), but I hope to spare someone from some of the horror stories I have heard from clients who hired 'cleaning ladies' who cost them thousands this way and that (oak flooring all downstairs ruined with bleach for one!). Be really careful is my message here.