How much do you pay hourly rate for cleaning?

[AliciaSoo]

Currently in the process of finding a cleaner...
This would be for a house 3/4 bed, weekly clean 3-4h.
I used to pay around 3-4 years ago through agency around £12/h and continue that until about a year ago.
For X reasons I stopped using that agency.
Private cleaner charging £17/h, I agreed as I was desperate for some help at home.
She's left due to personal reasons needs to decrease her workload. I felt she was been overpaid tbh, the rooms were all round, I stopped picking a certain little paper etc from a corner just to see if she'd done something about when particularly asking, "please pay special attention to certain area", but still her cleaning was not very good... but again, desperate measures and really needed the help at home.
Now in the process of looking for another cleaner.. I've asked 2 or 3 people around the area the asking rate is £17.5/h.
Is the world gone mad?!
Am I been unreasonable of thinking that is a crazy asking price?
Really looking for some insight here, thanks everyone!

That's roughly the going rate in my town. I'm on a local website called "NextDoor" - do you know of it? Lots of cleaners advertise on there and £12.50 is about the average they are asking for. The highest I have seen advertised is £14.

absolute Mugs like I said….who would be self employed for 12.50 an hour ? 🙄

£18 an hour for ours, which seems entirely reasonable to me. £12 an hour would be hugely below the living wage once you account for paying tax, nat insurance, no paid sick leave, cost of cleaning materials etc.

My 16 yo is getting £12.50 ph on a PT job. Do you readily expect to pay that OP when your Cleaner will have travel, NI, income tax, pension, saving invade shes ever sick, no holiday pay and possibly using her own products as well?

£20 an hour plus four weeks paid holiday (so four weeks where we pay and she doesn’t clean.)

We pay £15 an hour
2x2 hours a week

Such a massive help

Most cleaners I have had insist on cash so very much doubt they pay tax, ni, pension contributions etc.

Ours is £20 p/h. We live in north Yorks.

Currently £20/hr privately for our Treasure , cleaner, housekeeper and endless source of contacts for local trades. Has even been known to drive DH to some of his endless hospital appointments and generally make our lives better.

Originally asked her to keep the place 'ready for my mother to visit', two reasonably tidy adults, no children no pets.

Bliss

£18 per hour for our cleaner in Edinburgh. Think that’s about going rate.

£15. One-man band. London. Paid by bank transfer. We pay for the products, he buys them and invoices us (no mark up).

Same!

No it doesn’t work out to a £50k salary.

You take off holiday pay, sick pay, pension contributions and the expenses to run the business - for a cleaner this might include invoicing software, insurance, products (even if you’re providing eco products - others won’t be, and cloths etc aren’t cheap either).

Not one single person would question a decorator or gardener if they said their hourly rate was £20. People scoff because its seen as lowly women's work and anyone can do it.

We pay £15/hr in London

Cash and she doesn't provide materials

£20 per hour (cash) in Rutland and they're worth every penny. They use all their own products and their vacuum cleaner is far better than any I've seen, it leaves the carpets like new.

£15 p/h for 2 x 4hrs a week. 6 weeks where we pay her not to come while we’re away. Christmas bonus of £150. London. We provide products and high quality vacuum cleaner etc).

£12.50 is below the minim wage, taking into account NI, pension and holiday pay. Sure, if self employed they might not be contributing to a pension. But they should be making some NI contribution…unless you’re encouraging cash in hand under HMRC radar type of self employed. £14 probably just scrapes that hurdle.

Personally I couldn’t exploit someone by knowingly paying less than the legal minimum and have that on my conscience .

Exactly! And I bet the average cleaner struggle to do 40 hours actual chargeable cleaning a week anyway, what with the travel.

But even if they can, by the time you’ve added holiday pay, employers NI and pension (auto enrolment) the cost to an employer of someone on minimum wage must be around £32k. Then you have to provide a vehicle (or pay mileage) and provide materials, all while making a profit. £18/£20 an hour feels like the bare minimum to that and be legal.

£17 an hour.

£18 per hour, London. I pay by cash and usually round up to £20 per hour as a tip.

Invoicing software? You do realise most cleaners are just paid cash or bank transfer? They aren't issuing invoices

I agree it doesn't work out to 50k but there's no need to add things like this...

Also self employed is different to being employed - it's up to the cleaner to decide on what they charge, not for the person hiring them to do the maths on holiday pay/sick pay.

I pay my cleaner what she has asked for - which is 15 an hour

Cash in hand, not declaring earnings and not insured types.

The people exploiting them pretty much deserve what happens if they take the risk tbh.

This. Mine is £20 hr plus fuel costs. We also supply all cleaning products

Mine is £15 hour per hour (NW) and she does 4 hours/week. She’s an independent; when I looked at agencies they quoted £25-30 per hour. She supplies products and equipment too