Housekeeper Questions

[Anonymous]

Since there is no discussion forum on housekeeping topics (like the nanny discussion board), I am posting this here.

I have a cleaning service that comes every other week that I have had for many years, but I am growing increasingly unhappy with their services. (It is not a company. It is an individual and a rotating group of people she has working for/with her.) I am thinking of switching to an actual housekeeper type person who would come once or twice a week. My questions:

(1) What is the going rate for a housekeeper in NW DC?
(2) What is the typical schedule? (a certain number of hours or a certain number of days?)
(3) What are typical duties for such a person?
(4) Is it possible to find someone who can be paid "on the books" or is that unusual?

Thanks very much for any assistance and advice.

[Anonymous]

*bump*

I'd like to know this too.

[Anonymous]

We pay our housekeeper about $340 a week to come two days. She started out at about $130/wk for one day about four years ago, and has gotten annual raises of 5% every year. When she went to two days, we just doubled what she was already making.. She used to work for another family three days a week, but they got divorced, so she asked to pick up another day with us and we said yes (we were in the process of making our house bigger, had another baby, etc. so it made sense). Her biggest complaint was that she could not find anybody else besides us willing to pay her on the books, so she was worried about social security, etc. (as she should be). She does laundry and all the cleaning. She is supposed to work roughly 8:30-4:30 with a lunch break, although some days she leaves early. I have a schedule of stuff I want done every visit, every week, every two weeks, and once a month. She also does other tasks like clean out the refrigerator completely when we are out of town.

We treat her like a cross between a nanny and a cleaning person, so we give bonuses at Christmas and on her brithday, she has days off, etc. I added her to my payroll service when she first started with us, so she gets direct deposit, etc.

Her tasks are pretty much what you would expect - all the cleaning plus the whole family's laundry and changing/washing linens. She also picks up if we leave things a mess, but I try not to. She doesn't cook or shop or anything like that - she's really a glorified cleaning person. As the kids get older, I would seriously consider her for more of an Alice from the Brady Bunch type position but she does not drive, so I don't think that would work.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

(1) What is the going rate for a housekeeper in NW DC?
(2) What is the typical schedule? (a certain number of hours or a certain number of days?)
(3) What are typical duties for such a person?
(4) Is it possible to find someone who can be paid "on the books" or is that unusual?

1. It differs all over the place, but it seems to come out to about $20-25 an hour for someone who comes on a bi-weekly basis. I.e., we have a 2br/den condo in Georgetown and we pay $85 for about 3-4 hrs.

2. Again, depends on what you need. You can normally find someone to come when you need them, whether its bi-weekly, weekly or a few days daily.

3. Our cleaning lady cleans the entire apt but doesnt do laundry. We've never asked her so she might, but she currently doesnt (other cleaners in the past have folded and hung up our clean laundry). We ask her every so often to clean the fridge or other specific-type tasks.

4. Many legal workers will be happy to be paid on the books.

[Anonymous]

1. We live in NW DC and pay $22/hour.
2. Our housekeeper comes once a week for an 8-hour day. No benefits, but we give her four weeks' pay as a year-end bonus.
3. She does basic cleaning, laundry, and ironing. Also straightens up stuff I didn't get to.
4. We have always paid on the books--I don't think finding someone who wants to be paid legally is a problem.

[Anonymous]

We pay $500 per week gross (on the books, with taxes taken out), for three days a week. The hours are set by the housekeeper -- it is whatever it takes to get through the tasks. She usually arrives before 8 a.m., and leaves in the mid-afternoon. We have a fairly big house, so she does not clean every part of the house each visit, although she does clean the heavy traffic rooms (kitchen, play room, etc.). She does all of the laundry (for children and for us), including folding and putting them back in the drawers/closets. She changes the linens. She does not do any cooking or grocery shopping for us. She also does not handle our children, as we have a separate nanny.

[Anonymous]

20:39 from last night here. In re-reading my post I realize it may have been confusing. Our housekeeper does not do any childcare either. We also have a nanny. I meant we treat her like a cross between a nanny and a cleaning person for purposes of benefits and how she is paid, not in her duties.

[Anonymous]

We pay $125/week for our once a week housekeeper. She comes at 9 and leaves at around 4. She cleans and does the laundry. She's off books b/c we don't have to pay taxes on that amount in MOnt. county.

[Anonymous]

Am I correct in thinking that housekeepers are more expensive than nannies?

[Anonymous]

Depends on the housekeeper and the nanny. We pay our housekeeper a little over $21 an hour (she's been with for several years) and the nanny $19/hour (just started with us last summer). If you look at the reletaive rates at which they started in their positions, the nanny was more.

[Anonymous]

We have a cleaning service and we pay $100/week for once a week cleanings. Usually two or three people come and they are here for maybe an hour, sometimes an hour and a half-- very occasionally two. Since it is a service (a small family-owned one, but a service nonetheless-- they have business cards, choose the schedule, bring their own equipment, sometimes rotate different employees in and out, etc). We have a 5 br house but it is smallish-- a bbungalow.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine that it would take 2-3 full days every week to clean a house and do laundry. You must all live in exceptionally large and clean houses!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I correct in thinking that housekeepers are more expensive than nannies?

yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I correct in thinking that housekeepers are more expensive than nannies?

yes.

does this seem off to anyone else? one cleans your house, the other watches after your children??

[Anonymous]

Most housekeepers have to cobble together a number of part-time jobs, and few have benefits, so they do not necessarily make more than a nanny over the course of a year.

But in any case, there's little correlation between some notion of intrinsic value and pay. The woman who organized our closets charges way more per hour than our nanny ever did. If we had an accountant, I'm sure s/he would make much more than our kids' teachers. Etc. Etc.