Cost of a Cleaner

[MellowLemonQuail]

I’ve been searching for a cleaner and I’ve been quoted £50 for 2.5 hours a week or £70 for 2 hours (different cleaners). I’m utterly baffled when people on here seem to get cleaners for £12-£18. We live semi rural in the north - so it’s not London weighting. Anyone pay above £18 p/h for a cleaner?

Self employed cleaners also have overheads. They have business insurance to pay, insurance on their car for business insurance etc. We pay £20ph for our cleaner and she’s worth her weight in gold

Cheaper in London because more people available for the work. And particularly wanting cash in hand / no visa checks / odd hours around other jobs / sporadic work. It’s easy to find a cleaner here whereas previously living semi rurally, fewer want the work so the wage goes up to attract someone. And agency always charge loads.

We’ll be looking forward a cleaner when we retire to our flat in central Scotland soon. Expect to be paying at least £20 ph.

All of the tradespeople we have used in renovating charge at least £200 per day plus materials so we think the cleaner will be worth every penny. Done right, it’s hard work.

£40 for 2.5 hours weekly. She doesn’t have insurance.

The going rate seems to be £15-20 an hour locally. Big city location but in rural areas I can see it might be higher as they'll probably have further to travel between clients which is time they're not earning money from cleaning, so probably factor some of that into the hourly rate.

We pay £20 per hour. Not London

I've just retired as a self employed cleaner
I was insured and had DBS check. Was registered self employed with HMRC, never worked cash in hand
Provided all equipment, hoover, mop, cloths etc, NEAT cleaning products

So all those looking down their noses at cleaners and expecting to pay them less than minimum/living wage, just remember by the time they have paid for equipment, fuel, possibly uniform £12 to £15 is a pittance

Is flipping hard work and even with a contract customers can cancel last minute leaving cleaner with no money.

I charged £15/£18 per hour depending on what was required, hardly a fortune

I had a cleaning business a few years ago as I was caring for a relative and it fit round that. I charged £15 ph, but would be looking at £18 or more now.

I worked a maximum of six hours a day. So either 2 x 3hrs or a 4 and a 2. The earliest I started was 7am, and latest finish was 4.30pm.

My own products, travel expenses, equipment, insurance, marketing, etc all goes into the fee. When minimum wage is £12.21, then the minimum a self employed person is charging is surely a lot more than that in order to be making at least minimum wage when you take off all their expenses.

And if people will pay more for a good cleaner why on earth would you pay yourself the minimum? I'd never do cleaning for minimum wage!

I don’t think £20 ph is too bad either if I’m honest. I know min wage is £12.21 but that’s not the real cost to an employer it’s more like an average £16-£17 by the time you consider payroll costs, tax, ni, holiday pay, sick pay, maternity. If you are self employed you have to fork out for that yourself plus keep a car on the road and account for travel time.

I used to clean rural holiday lets at £22-£25 ph. I am financially better off in a £12.70 ph wfh role.

I know people only really want to pay for hours worked but cleaners (carers suffer from this attitude too) can’t magic themselves there. £50 probably works out to 3 hours at roughly min wage after costs , so cleaning plus 15 minutes each way?

I think £10 per hour in 2025 is pretty exploitative.

I pay my cleaner £50 for 2 to 2.5 hours per week. I have had him for years and really value him as he doesn't let me down except maybe twice in about, what, 10 years, and that was through illness so I don't really class that as letting me down.

I value having a clean house.

omg if I hear someone else compare a cleaner to a junior doctor! How ridiculous. A cleaner who charges £20ph makes about £12. They pay for products, equipment. No sick pay, no holiday leave - this all has to be taken out of their wages. It's hard work if done properly. Yes I'm a self employed cleaner.

I pay £17ph through an agency. Cleaner gets £14ph.

£16 an hour here in NorthWest. Had quotes from £14 - £18 an hour.

I’ve just got a new cleaner, £17 an hour for 4 hours with one person, or two of them spend 2 hours each for the same money. They bring all their own equipment and cleaning products. I live in a London suburb.

I’ve been quoted £22 an hour by one person and £22.50 by another. No thanks. It’s taking the piss.

Do it yourself then, I guess!

Well said

I’m a cleaner.
I have had my business for over a decade.
I am not cheap.
I am fully booked.
I am not cash in hand.
My payments are all collected via direct debit and tracked by Quickbooks.
I have overheads. The amount I charge per hour is not what I get to keep in my back pocket.
I have times where I’m working but not being paid - going to see potential clients, organising quotes (that may never come to anything), laundering my kit, driving between clients.
It’s a very physical job. Whilst some cleaners might flick a duster, I do not. I climb ladder, move furniture, get down in my hands & knees, properly scrub.
I could not do this job 40hrs per week/52wks a year so, disappointingly, I do not earn £46k/yr.

Unlike a junior doctor I don’t have a pension, holiday pay or sick pay. If I want a day off, I have to lose money or work the job another time which effectively means I don’t actually have the time off, I just juggle it.
If I charged less, doctors would not earn more.

My husband doesn’t have a degree. He doesn’t even have good GCSEs. He earns over 2.5x that of a junior doctor. He also has a good pension. Good holiday allowance. Life insurance.
No one asks him why he earns so much compared to a junior doctor.

Your cleaner presents you with a price. You pay it or not. There will always be someone cheaper. And cheaper is more likely to be here today, gone tomorrow once they realise they’re working for peanuts after costs. I’m not here for a race to the bottom. I don’t want clients who try to analyse/guess how much I might take home and price shopping clients are not my client.

Well said.

You sound like a very good cleaner!

It's because it's physically exhausting and the rates have to stay well above NMW or no-one would do it. Not many cleaners are working forty hours a week because it isn't sustainable. Anyway, no-one is stopping you doing it...

Try working as a cleaner then. It's not just a case of flicking a duster around, you know. It can be hard physical work, especially in this heat, non stop for three hours at times per job then you go to another one. Plus driving to get there. Think of that next time you are sat behind a desk and not everyone gets as well paid as you seem to think. Some of the things we have to do are horrendous and more often than not, they are in houses whose well paid owners somehow just can't seem to check the toilet is flushed after use. Your'e all heart with your remarks about working weekends and evenings.

£17 per hour in south London but she is too cheap and I tell her this all the time and pay her when she is away or we are away