Cleaner's charges

[Tabitha1960]

Lady offering cleaning services, I asked her for her rates for four hours of cleaning and got this reply:

"I charge £20 an hour, but there would be two of us so will only take half as long and as it’s £10 each person per hour, if it takes 4 hours it would be £80."

Eh?

Is it me or.... ?

I'd presume 4 hours of cleaning will take 2 people 2 hours so £40 total

Can you find someone else who communicates more clearly?

If there are two cleaners you would get 8 hours of cleaning in 4 hours.

Assuming the 2nd person isn’t just going to “hold the bucket” and will actually clean.

start and end make sense I think - 2 people working 4 “man hours” at £20 per person per hour. So they’d be at work in your house for 2 hours and charge £80 for the work. I don’t understand what the £10 relates to.

She's telling you the way she works is that 2 cleaners are there at a time.
An hour of 2 cleaners will cost you £20. Each cleaner will receive £10 for that hour.
If you want 4 hours of cleaning done, you only need to have them there for 2 hours, as that will be 2 hrs x 2 people = 4 hours. (£40)

If you want them there for 4 hours, you actually are getting 8 hours of work done which would cost you £80).

£10 an hour is below legal minimum wage for over 18 years old in the UK since 1st April.
£10.18 for over 18s and £10.42 for over 23 .
That's just the start of your problems if they are not aware of that, operating without insurance and you are actively supporting the black economy.

What don’t you understand?
2 cleaners x 4 hours at £10 an hour each = £80.

The work I want done will take one person four hours.

She then offered to bring a 2nd person, therefore the work will only take 2 hours.

2 cleaners x 2 hours at £10 an hour each = £40.

"There is no definition of self-employment in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. However, those who are genuinely and independently self-employed are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage as they cannot be classed as a worker within the meaning of the Act. This is because the work or services they supply is provided by their business to their customer or client under a contract for services."

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-minimum-wage-manual/nmwm05060

"Wage - who is not entitled to itSelf-employed and the minimum wageGuide

Are the self-employed entitled to the minimum wage?No. The minimum wage does not apply to the self-employed. A person is self-employed if they run their business for themselves and take responsibility for its success or failure. The self-employed aren't paid through PAYE and they don't have the employment rights that employees would have such as entitlement to the minimum wage.
How to identify if someone is self-employedIn most cases it is easy to distinguish between someone who is self-employed and someone who is a worker. Generally, a self-employed person:

• agrees a price for a job in advance and gives you an invoice or a bill on completion of the work
• controls their own time and decides whether or not to take each job
• provides their own equipment
• keeps the profits they make and bears any losses themselves"

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/self-employed-and-minimum-wage

When you find yourself googling justification for not paying NMW then you've gone very wrong somewhere along the line.

Well, she did write:

"it’s £10 each person per hour"

She was just giving you an example of hours, that's all.

Basically the clean will cost £80. If one person was doing it then they would be in your house for 4 hours. As there are 2 people they will only need to be there for 2 hours. Assume each cleaner would then earn £40 for two hours work. I would never agree to an arrangement where I paid someone £10ph though!

She has not made herself very clear with her message to you but think she means the above?