Do you pay your 1x/week housekeeper for sick days? Holiday bonus?

[Anonymous]

Under what circumstances do you pay your housekeeper for missed days?

My housekeeper wants to be paid regardless of circumstance - our vacation, her vacation, sick days, bad train day. Is this reasonable? Do you ask give a holiday bonus on top of this? How much?

[Anonymous]

I don't pay her for sick days. In fact, if she can't make it, she sends a friend, and I pay the friend. I don't pay her for my vacation, although I find something else for her to do for me that week like polish silver or clean the fridge - and then I pay her her normal amount. I do give a holiday bonus of 2x weekly pay.

[Anonymous]

If she cancels, I don't pay her, I pay a holiday bonus of 2X her usual fee, if I cancel with no notice, I pay as a courtesy.
Usually we can reschedule.
If she goes on vacation, I don't pay her.
If I am on vacation, I usually have her come and clean anyway and ask her to focus on a certain list of things that are not park of the normal weekly cleaning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she cancels, I don't pay her, I pay a holiday bonus of 2X her usual fee, if I cancel with no notice, I pay as a courtesy.
Usually we can reschedule.
If she goes on vacation, I don't pay her.
If I am on vacation, I usually have her come and clean anyway and ask her to focus on a certain list of things that are not park of the normal weekly cleaning.

Exactly how I do it.

[Anonymous]

We pay our 2x month cleaner a holiday bonus of a one time clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she cancels, I don't pay her, I pay a holiday bonus of 2X her usual fee, if I cancel with no notice, I pay as a courtesy.
Usually we can reschedule.
If she goes on vacation, I don't pay her.
If I am on vacation, I usually have her come and clean anyway and ask her to focus on a certain list of things that are not park of the normal weekly cleaning.

Same, although with our old person we also paid for a week or two of vacation. She'd been with us a long time. Current person is only every 2 weeks and we don't do vacation because we can't go a month between cleanings. We do pay her, and have her clean, when we are away.

[Anonymous]

WEve had the same one for 4 years. She does our house with her sister, if she cant come the sister does it by herself and vice versa. She has occasionally asked me to switch days and we have done that. She has never said she cant come come and I have never cancelled her. If we are on vacation she still comes. She comes once every 2 weeks so maybe thats why this is different for me.
I give her $100 for Christmas ( thats what I pay per cleaning)

[Anonymous]

If I'm on vacation, she comes anyway and does spot cleaning (like cleaning out the cabinets)

If she's on vacation, she sends a sub.

So far, in 15 years, our housekeeper has not once been sick. (She'd always send a sub.)

At Christmas, I give her $150. (Our house is 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms -- approx 1900 square feet. She comes every week to clean, and we pay her $145 per week.)

[Anonymous]

For a 1Xweek or even 2X week job, I wouldn't pay. However if I had a housekeeper who worked close-to or fully full-time, I would. But I would also be paying a lot less per day.

[Anonymous]

I have a PT housekeeper who we pay $300 per week. I pay her every week and plan to give her a $100 Christmas gift. She has been working for us for a few months only.

[Anonymous]

I don't pay when she doesn't come. If I go on vacation I have her come anyway.
At Christmas I give her equivalent of one time cleaning.

[Anonymous]

I usually reschedule so there aren't cancellations. But I do cancel without paying rarely. I gave a $200 holiday bonus which is about halfway between one and two weekly cleanings ($120).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under what circumstances do you pay your housekeeper for missed days?

My housekeeper wants to be paid regardless of circumstance - our vacation, her vacation, sick days, bad train day. Is this reasonable? Do you ask give a holiday bonus on top of this? How much?

It really depends on the situation. If she never gets sick and its a one time thing, I'd probably pay. Our vacation, I'd probably have her come as the longest we go away is a week or two and she can do more heavy duty cleaning. Its nice to come home to a clean house. Bad train day... no. Her transportation is her responsibility. Her vacation, probably not.

She should not be asking for a bonus. I'd give a week salary or $100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under what circumstances do you pay your housekeeper for missed days?

My housekeeper wants to be paid regardless of circumstance - our vacation, her vacation, sick days, bad train day. Is this reasonable? Do you ask give a holiday bonus on top of this? How much?

No. Holiday day bonus = one week's pay. If she's sick, on vacation, or has transportation issues, that's her loss, not yours. If you go on vacation, have her come anyway. She's asking for benefits you'd get with a full-time job, but she's only working 20%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't pay her for sick days. In fact, if she can't make it, she sends a friend, and I pay the friend. I don't pay her for my vacation, although I find something else for her to do for me that week like polish silver or clean the fridge - and then I pay her her normal amount. I do give a holiday bonus of 2x weekly pay.

This is exactly what we do. If she is sick, she reschedules or sends someone else. If she is on vacation, she sends someone else. If we are on vacation, she cleans the ovens, fridge, unfinished basement that she usually never does anything in, etc. And we give her twice what we normally pay the week before Christmas.