house cleaner asking for raise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really bothering me. I just gave my weekly house cleaner a $10 raise last month - as in 4 weeks of the new pay rate- and last week she asked me for another $10 a week raise because of gas prices. She tells me she has a 30 minute drive and it is getting too expensive to come every week. She said she could either come every other week, but then have to charge me $60 more each time, or she can come every week with a $10 raise. I currently pay her $160 for a 3,800 sqft house. It takes her 3.5 hours, so it comes to $45 per hour, which I think is a good rate. I pay her when we go out of town and I give her a 2 week pay bonus at Christmas. When she goes out of town, she has a friend come clean instead, which I really appreciate. I just can't get past that she wants a raise so soon after I gave her a raise, and I can't think of how to respond, but it really upsets me. She's been with us for 10 years and I really like her. I just feel like I will resent her if I give in to this random increase. Obviously she's not paying an additional $10 in gas every week to drive to our house, so I'm not sure why she said that. OK DCUM, tell me I'm being petty.

You are cheap and what you pay her for this size house is robbery to me. How often does she come? Mine comes every 3 weeks and my home is 1700 Sq feet and she’s here 5 hours with her husband. She cleans the inside of the fridge, gets in the bathtub to clean it, cleans the baseboards, washes linens, makes beds…..love her work!

Every three weeks is too infrequent. No wonder they are there for so long.

[Anonymous]

You're being cheap and ridiculous. 4 weeks is about the timeframe of the rise in gas prices. She is literally telling you she cannot afford to drive the 30 minutes to your house. I grew up around poverty so I'm guessing she is scrimping every penny and literally counting change to get gas and you're on here fussing about a $10 raise on your already cheap ass rate. Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're being cheap and ridiculous. 4 weeks is about the timeframe of the rise in gas prices. She is literally telling you she cannot afford to drive the 30 minutes to your house. I grew up around poverty so I'm guessing she is scrimping every penny and literally counting change to get gas and you're on here fussing about a $10 raise on your already cheap ass rate. Give me a break.

Amen!
OP this isn’t petty it’s rude, ridiculous, and unnecessary. Greedy in an ugly way. You spend that much at Starbucks or somewhere else probably. Give her $20 and smile and thank her. Although I do wonder what she does for 3.5 hours in a home your size. And how often does she come?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what you pay for is trust and honesty. 10 years is a very long time and clearly you trust and like this person.

My recommendation would be to make the extra $10 temporary until gas prices get down below X amount. Or split the difference and do five dollars permanently.

There is no guarantee that your friends housekeeper will charge you that lower amount since you are a new client. Many housekeepers don’t increase their prices on old clients but have higher rates for New clients.

Not temporary. Just pay it or let her go somewhere else and make more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is really bothering me. I just gave my weekly house cleaner a $10 raise last month - as in 4 weeks of the new pay rate- and last week she asked me for another $10 a week raise because of gas prices. She tells me she has a 30 minute drive and it is getting too expensive to come every week. She said she could either come every other week, but then have to charge me $60 more each time, or she can come every week with a $10 raise. I currently pay her $160 for a 3,800 sqft house. It takes her 3.5 hours, so it comes to $45 per hour, which I think is a good rate. I pay her when we go out of town and I give her a 2 week pay bonus at Christmas. When she goes out of town, she has a friend come clean instead, which I really appreciate. I just can't get past that she wants a raise so soon after I gave her a raise, and I can't think of how to respond, but it really upsets me. She's been with us for 10 years and I really like her. I just feel like I will resent her if I give in to this random increase. Obviously she's not paying an additional $10 in gas every week to drive to our house, so I'm not sure why she said that. OK DCUM, tell me I'm being petty.

I'm paying $265 per week to an cleaning company to clean a 3800 sq foot house in one of the poorest counties in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is really bothering me. I just gave my weekly house cleaner a $10 raise last month - as in 4 weeks of the new pay rate- and last week she asked me for another $10 a week raise because of gas prices. She tells me she has a 30 minute drive and it is getting too expensive to come every week. She said she could either come every other week, but then have to charge me $60 more each time, or she can come every week with a $10 raise. I currently pay her $160 for a 3,800 sqft house. It takes her 3.5 hours, so it comes to $45 per hour, which I think is a good rate. I pay her when we go out of town and I give her a 2 week pay bonus at Christmas. When she goes out of town, she has a friend come clean instead, which I really appreciate. I just can't get past that she wants a raise so soon after I gave her a raise, and I can't think of how to respond, but it really upsets me. She's been with us for 10 years and I really like her. I just feel like I will resent her if I give in to this random increase. Obviously she's not paying an additional $10 in gas every week to drive to our house, so I'm not sure why she said that. OK DCUM, tell me I'm being petty.

What's your HHI? I'd like to know how low it is that paying a living wage to a contractor is bothering you.

And are you paying payroll taxes on her? Providing any benefits? $45/hour isn't much when she's having to cover all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really bothering me. I just gave my weekly house cleaner a $10 raise last month - as in 4 weeks of the new pay rate- and last week she asked me for another $10 a week raise because of gas prices. She tells me she has a 30 minute drive and it is getting too expensive to come every week. She said she could either come every other week, but then have to charge me $60 more each time, or she can come every week with a $10 raise. I currently pay her $160 for a 3,800 sqft house. It takes her 3.5 hours, so it comes to $45 per hour, which I think is a good rate. I pay her when we go out of town and I give her a 2 week pay bonus at Christmas. When she goes out of town, she has a friend come clean instead, which I really appreciate. I just can't get past that she wants a raise so soon after I gave her a raise, and I can't think of how to respond, but it really upsets me. She's been with us for 10 years and I really like her. I just feel like I will resent her if I give in to this random increase. Obviously she's not paying an additional $10 in gas every week to drive to our house, so I'm not sure why she said that. OK DCUM, tell me I'm being petty.

You are cheap and what you pay her for this size house is robbery to me. How often does she come? Mine comes every 3 weeks and my home is 1700 Sq feet and she’s here 5 hours with her husband. She cleans the inside of the fridge, gets in the bathtub to clean it, cleans the baseboards, washes linens, makes beds…..love her work!

I was wondering how on earth there was this much cleaning to do based on earlier posts about several hours of cleaning, but with the above it makes sense. We have bi-weekly cleaners for our 1600 sq ft house and the two of them finish in 45 minutes. We pay $90 per cleaning. They don’t clean the inside of the fridge or clean linens - they just mop the floors, vacuum all the spaces and clean the counters. Mostly focus on bathrooms and kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are one cheap MFer OP.

I second that. OP, I feel like this thread didn't go as you hoped it would. You are a cheap, petty person and your cleaning lady deserves a better client than you. I hope she finds one, soon.

[Anonymous]

Pay her the $10. We pay $225 for 3800 sqft home.

I highly doubt you will find a service that will do a home this size for you for under $180/$200 right now and the amount of time it will rake you to source a new and trustworthy cleaner far exceeds this $40/month. This is a ridiculous amount to get hung up on.

I hope you are giving your cleaner of 10 years a regular, annual raise too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, I think $160 for a 3800 square foot house is low. I pay $200 for a smaller house.

I agree. I pay $150 for a 3,000 sq ft but my cleaner only cleans the main level & the bedrooms, changes sheets, etc.

[Anonymous]

She's not just asking you for a raise she's asking all of her clients. And she's not just driving to clean your house on that one particular day, she's likely cleaning 2. Let's assume she hits 2 clients every day, 5 days a week, each paying the additional $10. So she's trying to justify making an additional $400 a month?

Find another housekeeper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's not just asking you for a raise she's asking all of her clients. And she's not just driving to clean your house on that one particular day, she's likely cleaning 2. Let's assume she hits 2 clients every day, 5 days a week, each paying the additional $10. So she's trying to justify making an additional $400 a month?

Find another housekeeper.

And you know this how?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's not just asking you for a raise she's asking all of her clients. And she's not just driving to clean your house on that one particular day, she's likely cleaning 2. Let's assume she hits 2 clients every day, 5 days a week, each paying the additional $10. So she's trying to justify making an additional $400 a month?

Find another housekeeper.

To which I say: good for her and send me her # if you don’t want to pay. She’s an independent business woman supporting her self and standing up for her worth on the open market. Isn’t that how most of dcum makes their HHI? She’s giving OP a chance to match that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's not just asking you for a raise she's asking all of her clients. And she's not just driving to clean your house on that one particular day, she's likely cleaning 2. Let's assume she hits 2 clients every day, 5 days a week, each paying the additional $10. So she's trying to justify making an additional $400 a month?

Find another housekeeper.

And my husband just advocated for himself during his most recent performance review and walked away with a 20k raise. This type of thing is celebrated when a white collar male does it, but a self-employed cleaning woman getting $400 extra per month for an in-demand service during record inflation is objectionable? So what if she’s “trying to justify” the extra money. If she’s worth it, she’ll earn it. And good for her. She doesn’t owe OP cheap labor.

[Anonymous]

OP- ask yourself 3 simple questions and you'll have your answer. 1- Do you trust her? 2- Do you not want to replace her? 3-Can you afford it?
If you say yes to all, then pay her the extra ten for goodness sake.