Hourly rates for cleaners/housekeepers in London Post Reply

[NikkiB]

We are moving back to London and looking for a cleaner/housekeeper for a few hours each day but am unsure of what hourly rate is fair in London currently and whether most cleaners work as self employed or are you expected to pay holiday pay etc

Would be grateful to understand what is reasonable in the current climate or recommendations of agencies/cleaners that are professional.

Many thanks
Nikki

[Tilly10]

Hi Nikki,

We are in Wimbledon and pay £19 flat per hour for 4 hours daily Monday to Friday. We don’t pay holidays or sickness. We use a company that we found on checkatrade. They are local and very reliable. Let me know if you want their details.

[henricook]

This sounds interesting! Do you mind me asking what jobs they do in the 4 hours?

[Yummy]

Hi Nikki, we live in Balham and we pay £14 per hour for 5 hours once a week

[dudette]

I think the going rate is around £15 an hour which is a £1 more than junior doctors get!

[normangiles]

I think the going rate is around £15 an hour which is a £1 more than junior doctors get!

Yes that £1 extra they 'get' for a few hours a week will really set them up for life and make up for a prestigious  education, lucrative fulfilling career and life opportunities that junior Doctors will go on to enjoy.

How dare cleaners earn a living wage!  They should do it for free for condescending people like you, shouldn't they.

[dudette]

I think the going rate is around £15 an hour which is a £1 more than junior doctors get!

Yes that £1 extra they 'get' for a few hours a week will really set them up for life and make up for a prestigious  education, lucrative fulfilling career and life opportunities that junior Doctors will go on to enjoy.

How dare cleaners earn a living wage!  They should do it for free for condescending people like you, shouldn't they.

Not being condescending at all. I was actually making the point that junior doctors are vastly underpaid, not that cleaners are overpaid. Of course cleaners should earn a decent wage but they have not spent years training, accruing vast debts and then doing a job that literally involves holding people’s lives in their hands for far longer hours than cleaners or pretty much anyone else. But hey what do you care that our junior doctors are all going to Australia where they are paid more for fewer hours? As long as you have your house nice and clean that’s all we should worry about.

[normangiles]

I think the going rate is around £15 an hour which is a £1 more than junior doctors get!

Yes that £1 extra they 'get' for a few hours a week will really set them up for life and make up for a prestigious  education, lucrative fulfilling career and life opportunities that junior Doctors will go on to enjoy.

How dare cleaners earn a living wage!  They should do it for free for condescending people like you, shouldn't they. 

Not being condescending at all. I was actually making the point that junior doctors are vastly underpaid, not that cleaners are overpaid. Of course cleaners should earn a decent wage but they have not spent years training, accruing vast debts and then doing a job that literally involves holding people’s lives in their hands for far longer hours than cleaners or pretty much anyone else. But hey what do you care that our junior doctors are all going to Australia where they are paid more for fewer hours? As long as you have your house nice and clean that’s all we should worry about. 

No, that wasn't the point you were making at all.  

Also, please don't assume I feel junior Doctors aren't underpaid - crass assumption you've come up with and countered with to excuse your original comment.  They are underpaid BUT it is a very temporary part of their life, one which I think all the same, they should be better paid.

You may not feel cleaners aren't 'important' people compared to Doctors.  As mentioned, the duties and responsibilities Doctors have are very fully rewarded in general.  Junior Doctors at least can look forward to that and not having to be a cleaner for people like you, that view them as you do - pointing out on social media they 'get' £1  more than junior Doctors.  

[dudette]

Yes that £1 extra they 'get' for a few hours a week will really set them up for life and make up for a prestigious  education, lucrative fulfilling career and life opportunities that junior Doctors will go on to enjoy.

How dare cleaners earn a living wage!  They should do it for free for condescending people like you, shouldn't they. 

Not being condescending at all. I was actually making the point that junior doctors are vastly underpaid, not that cleaners are overpaid. Of course cleaners should earn a decent wage but they have not spent years training, accruing vast debts and then doing a job that literally involves holding people’s lives in their hands for far longer hours than cleaners or pretty much anyone else. But hey what do you care that our junior doctors are all going to Australia where they are paid more for fewer hours? As long as you have your house nice and clean that’s all we should worry about. 

No, that wasn't the point you were making at all.  

Also, please don't assume I feel junior Doctors aren't underpaid - crass assumption you've come up with and countered with to excuse your original comment.  They are underpaid BUT it is a very temporary part of their life, one which I think all the same, they should be better paid.

You may not feel cleaners aren't 'important' people compared to Doctors.  As mentioned, the duties and responsibilities Doctors have are very fully rewarded in general.  Junior Doctors at least can look forward to that and not having to be a cleaner for people like you, that view them as you do - pointing out on social media they 'get' £1  more than junior Doctors.  

I love the fact you are telling me what I was thinking when I wrote my original post. Mansplaining at its finest! Of course doctors are more important than cleaners (or if you like doctors’ work is more important than cleaners’ work and I’m talking about domestic cleaners, not the even more underpaid hospital cleaners.) Doctors save people’s lives and cleaners do the work middle class people can’t be bothered to do. And given how hard it is to get into medical school, most doctors are consistently underpaid throughout their careers compared to what they could have earned had they taken a lucrative job in the City Instead. I had a friend a few years ago who was a junior doctor - she has to pay to work. Her childcare cost more than she earned.

[Cr8nberry]

I pay £15ph for three hours, 52 weeks of the year, irrespective of sickness, holidays or any occasions when I don’t need or want my cleaner to come. She’s never asked me to cover these things, but I think it’s a reasonable thing to do. I send her a fixed amount by bank transfer each month, which I know helps her with budgeting.

[windmill26]

The going rate is between £16 and £18 in SW18.

[normangiles]

Not being condescending at all. I was actually making the point that junior doctors are vastly underpaid, not that cleaners are overpaid. Of course cleaners should earn a decent wage but they have not spent years training, accruing vast debts and then doing a job that literally involves holding people’s lives in their hands for far longer hours than cleaners or pretty much anyone else. But hey what do you care that our junior doctors are all going to Australia where they are paid more for fewer hours? As long as you have your house nice and clean that’s all we should worry about. 

No, that wasn't the point you were making at all.  

Also, please don't assume I feel junior Doctors aren't underpaid - crass assumption you've come up with and countered with to excuse your original comment.  They are underpaid BUT it is a very temporary part of their life, one which I think all the same, they should be better paid.

You may not feel cleaners aren't 'important' people compared to Doctors.  As mentioned, the duties and responsibilities Doctors have are very fully rewarded in general.  Junior Doctors at least can look forward to that and not having to be a cleaner for people like you, that view them as you do - pointing out on social media they 'get' £1  more than junior Doctors.   

I love the fact you are telling me what I was thinking when I wrote my original post. Mansplaining at its finest! Of course doctors are more important than cleaners (or if you like doctors’ work is more important than cleaners’ work and I’m talking about domestic cleaners, not the even more underpaid hospital cleaners.) Doctors save people’s lives and cleaners do the work middle class people can’t be bothered to do. And given how hard it is to get into medical school, most doctors are consistently underpaid throughout their careers compared to what they could have earned had they taken a lucrative job in the City Instead. I had a friend a few years ago who was a junior doctor - she has to pay to work. Her childcare cost more than she earned. 

Did you just assume my gender?   I am a woman. 

And still rattling on about how much worse off Doctors are in life.....agreed as I've said before they are underpaid when juniors.

All human beings are important and the work they do is important.  You are an ableist snob, who hasn't the brainpower to understand how flawed your reasoning is.  You are beyond ignorant.


 

[Annabel (admin)]

Many thanks for your contributions, there is lots of interesting information for the OP ...

That said, I am jumping in at this juncture to request that we stay on topic and refrain from personal attack in responses. 


Thanks 

A x

 

[betsyboop]

£14 for 5 hours once a week, northcote road area/BTC

[Moonlightdawn]

Hi

We pay our cleaner 15 pounds an hour and are based in Clapham Common / Clapham South. She comes twice a week.

We don't pay for sickness or holidays. If we are away, we ask if she would like to come in and clean areas that are not usually covered in the weekly clean (for instance, the utility room, the fridge, oven, some of the spare bedrooms, etc).

Hope this helps.