Hourly rate for domestic cleaner?

Aldeney

Hi

My Mum, who currently cleans part time for a solicitor firm, wants to take on extra work as a cleaner in private houses but has no idea what hourly rate to charge. She is excellent at her job, very thorough & reliable with good references.

Would anyone have any idea what an appropriate rate would be per hour? (At the moment she doesn't get an hourly rate just a flat monthly fee.)

Many thanks.

Nicki

I pay my cleaner £8.50 per hour. If you go to an agency in our area, then the going rate is £12 per hour and there is a minimum number of hours you must have. Obviously some of this amount goes to the agency as admin charges so I feel that £8.50 is a fair sum to be paying a cleaner direct. It may depend on the going rate for the area though. Maybe your mum could phone a few agencies in her area posing as a client and ask their rates and work back from there?

Rachie_B

I clean for a family and I get £7.50 p/h

which bizarrely is MORE than i get per hour in my nannying job ! :rolleyes:

some people will pay up to £10 p/h for a cleaner ! there was a thread on here not so long ago about it

pusscat

My cleaners rate is £8 per hour for 4 hours a week. She has her own full liability insurance in case she damages anything and she will do anything (within reason!) domestic that needs doing - cleaning, ironing, defrosting the fridge, changing beds etc.

This is in a small market town - so she cycles here. There are cheaper cleaners out there, but I am happy to pay for her reliability and her flexibility. She will come in and feed the cats if we are away, and she is also an additonal keyholder incase we ever get locked out.

She has been with me for years, has her own key and just comes in and does whatever needs doing.

Hope this gives her some idea.

HTH

Puss
XX

Justie

it really does depend on your area and somewhere between £8 and £10 is not unusual and I'd expect higher than that in the SE - as it's only for a couple of hours at a time then the hourly rate is usually higher than for a lot of comparable jobs

Aldeney

Thanks for all your replies, you have all been very helpful. She was thinking around the £7 - £8 mark but wasn't sure if it would be too high but judging from your responses it sounds like a normal figure.

belfastgirl23

Just to say if she doesn't value her skills and labour then other people won't. I think she should start with a slightly higher figure than she feels comfortable with personally (IMHO women who know properly how to do all of this and are reliable often undervalue themselves and their skills).

winnie81

my MIL in law works as a cleaner mainly for the elderly and she charges £10 per hour. I think thats a fair rate - I live in the cotswolds if it helps?

Claire x

squibbs25

Any idea what the rate would be in East Sussex/ Kent? (Robertsbridge/Staplehurst area)
Mum's thinking of getting either cleaner or housekeeper.

Squibbs

Savvy_Sue

If your mum:

multiplies her monthly pay by 12
divides by 52 and
divides that by the number of hours she usually works

she'll see what her hourly rate from the solicitors is. does she get paid holiday from them as well? (she ought to!) If she doesn't, then instead of 52 she uses however many weeks she usually does work.

You never know, she may feel she's being underpaid where she is now!

Edited to add that she will in her self-employed earnings be responsible for her own tax and NI, and it would be worth her while to ring her local HMRC office to discuss this as she needs to register as self-employed within 6 months. More advice on the Small Biz board!

desperate_mum_3

oh my god i'm putting my rate up .... I have been self employed cleaning for 7 years and charged £5 per hour up until this May and felt awful when I put it up to £6 ..... I live in Kent . SE kent