How much to pay a cleaner

bluezone

Because my parents are both disabled and hardly have any time left after caring for them we were thinking of getting a cleaner in once a week.

How much is the going rate for a cleaner per hour?

kittykat

I pay mine £7 per hour. When I was looking I had quotes ranging from £6 to almost £14 per hour - its a bit of a lottery in my experience, if you find a good one then the hourly rate is (within reason!) almost not really an issue...

bulchy

I would say about £7+ per hour. I used to help a friend out with her own cleaning business from time to time, and she did a lot more for her clients than cleaning, shopping collecting prescriptions etc. Most of the stuff she did was in her 'spare' time, not that she got much, but she treated the clients more like family than employers, and they did likewise with her.
Take your time in choosing someone, and hopefully you will end up with some one like my friend, worth her weight in gold she is.
Sue

Mark7799

The going rate will vary from area to area. It may be worth a bit of local investigation. Apart from paying, think about getting references (and you may be able to find out the going rate as well ;-))

Counting_Pennies_2

Ask your friends for recommendations. It is amazing how work colleagues, friends and maybe even the professionals you come into contact with through your parents will know.

I found it hard to get someone I trusted and it was through my friends I found someone.

Her rates were £10 per hour and I appreciated what she did.

Good luck

bluezone

many thanks for your replies - I will have a look i the local paper etc tonight. I can afford to pay up to £10/hour for a couple of hours a week. (I am going to pay as M+D wont have the money)

I'll let you know how I get on x

VickyM_2

I'd recommend using an agency - they can be more expensive, but they also do all the checking of references etc, and then if the person who usually cleans is off sick, they'll send along someone else. And if you're not happy with the service your particular cleaner is providing, it's a lot easier to complain to an agency!

ruthyjo

If you employ someone direct you get into paying employer's NI, perhaps having to pay maternity pay if they get pregnant (this happened to someone I know with their nanny - they were paying her maternity benfits of some sort and also had to get another form of childcare for their kids, it was a nightmare for them) so I'd go for an agency if possible. Sometimes works out better to have two cleaners for half the time. Thry might just gossip to each other of course but in my experience they work quicker because they have company and are less high maintenance i.e. they don't want to chat to you because their mate is there.

Nicki

It's true you have to pay tax and NI if your cleaner earns more than a certain amount, but if you employ through an agency, they will work this out for you. The downside is that most agencies charge you a monthly admin fee, on top of what you are paying the cleaner. Alternatively there are commercial agencies who will just calculate your employees tax and Ni for you without actually finding you the employee. You can offer a gross wage, so that if their tax and NI contributions fluctuate you are not left out of pocket.

So far as maternity pay goes, this is all reimbursed to you by the government so you should not be out of pocket. My nanny had a baby eighteen months ago, and it was far from a nightmare, because with a normal pregnancy you get lots of notice to find a temporary replacement to cover the maternity leave, and it is nice to treat your employees in the way you would like to be treated yourself - ie delighted at their good news and paying their maternity pay unbegrudgingly. It is of course illegal to discriminate against someone applying for a job on the grounds that they may later go on to have children.

shopndrop

bluezone wrote:

many thanks for your replies - I will have a look i the local paper etc tonight. I can afford to pay up to £10/hour for a couple of hours a week. (I am going to pay as M+D wont have the money)

I'll let you know how I get on x

If your parents don't have the money, are they claiming any benefits such as Pension Credits if they are entitled to them?

ruthyjo

Nicki wrote:

It's true you have to pay tax and NI if your cleaner earns more than a certain amount, but if you employ through an agency, they will work this out for you. The downside is that most agencies charge you a monthly admin fee, on top of what you are paying the cleaner. Alternatively there are commercial agencies who will just calculate your employees tax and Ni for you without actually finding you the employee. You can offer a gross wage, so that if their tax and NI contributions fluctuate you are not left out of pocket.

So far as maternity pay goes, this is all reimbursed to you by the government so you should not be out of pocket. My nanny had a baby eighteen months ago, and it was far from a nightmare, because with a normal pregnancy you get lots of notice to find a temporary replacement to cover the maternity leave, and it is nice to treat your employees in the way you would like to be treated yourself - ie delighted at their good news and paying their maternity pay unbegrudgingly. It is of course illegal to discriminate against someone applying for a job on the grounds that they may later go on to have children.

If you directly employ someone you also have to provide 4 weeks holiday (pro rataed of course).

If you have a live in nanny you may still have to provide accomodation whilst they are on maternity leave as this is a benefit in kind and so should still be received during maternity leave. You may also encounter problems if she needs a lot of sick time whilst pregnant (because of short notice etc). A pregnant employee need only give 28 days notice of when their leave is to start. However it is true that since 2003 you can reclaim maternity pay costs.

Of course it's nice if an employee is happily pregnant. I think the benefit of employing via an agency is that the problematic side of it is their's and not yours. This is particularly true with a cleaner where they can just send you someone else (and often do from week to week anyway).