How do I calculate fair pay for cleaner/gardener?

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057508#Comment_82057508

How much tax and NI she pays is individual to her

It depends on her total income and what expenses she claims, if any.

She may pay no tax or pay tax on it all. The only way you could know is to ask her.

Perhaps find out what other local cleaners charge .

Undervalued

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059530#Comment_82059530

Exactly!

If the OP has somebody good and reliable and are paying significantly below the market rate for her area, then that is both unfair on the faithful cleaner and a good way to lose a valuable service. That has a habit of happening at the least convenient time!

So, I would try and find out what the going rate is in your area for good directly employed cleaners (i.e not via an agency) and pay at least that. A birthday and Christmas present doesn't go amiss too!

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6674867/how-do-i-calculate-fair-pay-for-cleaner-gardener

https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/self-employed-income-calculator.aspx

The above calculator will tell you what she's having to pay but you will need to know how much her other customers are paying her, it ignores any other income sources and obviously assumes she does everything by the book.

The fact you are paying sick and holiday, presumably someone else doesn't automatically take her place, then it's likely she would be classed as a worker rather than self employed or maybe even an employee. You may want to look at the CREST tool on the HMRC website to determine her employment status.

£17.33/hr for a truly self employed person would certainly be on the low side, depending on where you are. £19-£22 is generally considered about equivalent of minimum wage but that factors in that they dont get sick or holiday pay where as you are paying that. That said, sometimes its better to have a client that pays a bit less but pays on time, is no problems, is reasonable etc than try and get £25/hr and spend hours chasing each invoice, forever been called back to "fix" things they say weren't done properly without pay etc.