Question about Housekeepers - not a "looking for a housekeeper" posting

[Anonymous]

I recently posted a "looking for a housekeeper" notice and have received no replies except pretty harsh commentary (posted and emailed) on my expectations/rate of pay etc. It would seem things have changed since the last time I looked for a housekeeper a few years ago, so I am looking for (please!) helpful input.

We are a two-working-parent family with a 12 y.o. child. We presently have an au pair, whom we adore, but who is returning home at the end of the year. Our son is really getting too old for the program and we don’t need the large number of hours of childcare any longer. We also have a once/week cleaning lady, whom we pay $15/hour. She has children of her own and is not able to take on after-school childcare duties.

Due to the end of the time with our au pair, and a changing work situation, as well as a more realistic assessment of the help we need/want, we are looking for a housekeeper to work three times a week next year. One day would involve some child-driving; the other two days would be based at home. Our child would be home some of that time, and the housekeeper expected to keep an eye on him, but not to “care” for him in the hands-on way that infants or even elementary-schoolers need. Approx 50% of the hours each day would be before he got home from school, so that time is purely housekeeping.

So, my questions are:
• What is the “going rate” for this type of position? I should clarify it would be a legal, “over-the-table” employment, and we would expect to give paid vacation etc.
• I am confident I could keep the house how I want it kept in 12-15 hrs/wk, the commentators seem to doubt this is long enough. Any idea what the “usual” number of hours for a part-time housekeeper is?
• Apart from DCUM, where else should I be looking for someone to fill this role?

Thanks for your advice.

[Anonymous]

I didn't see your original posting, so I'm not sure what the objections were, but we have a housekeeper we hired for a similar situation. Our housekeeper works 12-15 hrs/wk. We have a 4 bedroom, 4 bath house, and two kids (12 yo and 2 yo). In that amount of time, the housekeeper can do a fantastic, detailed job of deep cleaning (including rotation projects monthly like fridge, oven, and pantry cleaning), all the household laundry with some ironing, and kitchen wipedown/dishwasher work each day she is here. She normally works 12 hrs to accomplish all this. She is also "on call" to pick up my daughter at preschool should I run late at work. The understanding is that she not complete some housekeeping any week she is needed to watch the toddler, work more slowly while supervising my daughter, or put in more hours. Her choice.

This amount of work is totally doable in this number of hours. Our housekeeper is very detailed oriented and not very speedy! She also does this work in two long days and one short day (at he request, to fit another job in on the short day) On her long days, she takes a lunch break. She does a great job, and we are much happier with her than with our last housekeeper who could actually do a good (not great) job with all this work in about 8 hrs/wk.

To put this in context, we used to use a cleaning service. They could do a passable job on our house with two people in 3 hrs. That's 6 hrs of work. Add time on for laundry and more detailed oriented work and I think 12-15 is plenty. Also keep in mind that people who work for the housekeeping services are normally paid minimum wage, or close to it, with no benefits. We are paying $15$/hr with two weeks worth of PTO and PTO at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

All in all, I consider it a win-win. We are paying about the same as we did for a service and offering a much better paying position to someone. We found our housekeeper on sittercity.com. (And this site had the added benefit of allowing you to see who was interested in nannying jobs as well. Those candidates normally had fewer qualms about the possibility of watching our todder.

[Anonymous]

Same PP here, as I just looked at your post in the housekeeping forum (I'm assuming it was yours)
I think the issue is that you not only include housekeeping, you have a few other things that are real time sucks.
Our housekeeper does minimal ironing. If you have a lot, that can be 4-5 hrs a week in and of itself. Also, errands.
It may only be a few errands, but could still take up most of one day. You can run a lot of laundry and do other things, but only if you are in the house.

I think your position is totally doable without those things. Or, doable with those things in maybe 20 hrs per week. I also think your offered pay is excellent, not sure what the complaint is there. (Don't worry about people who insist housekeeping is a $25/hr job, That only applies in "by the job" housekeeping when you are paying someone to come in once a week any clean your house. THe rules are different once you are providing steady, higher hour employment.)

[Anonymous]

Have not seen your post OP. I do know that the help in this geographical area can be organized and quite unreasonably demanding; and not very good considering (as compared to other markets). Don't let any candidate strong arm you. We're all in the same financial boat.

A lot of help wants more hours and more hourly pay (so would I, in fact), and they are just waiting for the sucker who will give it out of desperation. More hours = stretch those duties out! Don't do it. Personally, I'm offended by some of the demands that I have heard by some candidates. It's insulting.

Contrary to a certain population's beliefs, the streets of America are indeed not paved with gold; and the market is not what it was just a couple years ago.

Would a cleaning service once a week (say for $200. each visit) be sufficient? The Maids, for example. Then you could hire a college kid to do light housework and child duties. Just a thought.

As you can tell, some candidates have pissed me off in the past. If the people who are shopping for help stick together, it can only be to our favor. I'm just not into paying someone to sit on their ass and call South America. Flame away.

Stick to your guns. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OP I do not think you are out of line at all. You will always get those irate responses from people who want to inflate the market rate for those positions. Minimum wage in this country is $8.25. Not sure why someone scrubbing toilets deserves to make more than the grocery check out girl or shelf stocker at the store.

I have professional, college educated young people in my office who make $15 an hour (annualized).

Bottom line, as long as you are within the law, economics dictate that the job is worth what someone is willing to pay plus what someone is willing to accept. If you can find someone to do the job for $15 or less, good for you.

- Person who voluntarily gave my house cleaner a big raise this year.