What’s the going rate for a cleaner these days?

Wife has persuaded me to get a cleaner again, now we have baby number two who’s 10 weeks old.

Last time we had a cleaner was about 6/7 years ago and we paid her £9.50 an hour and she was brilliant.


It seems that now, in a village near Cambridge, it’s £15 an hour min, and we even had a quote from one advert in the local mini magazine, for £18.50 plus VAT.

Plus vat for a cleaner!!!!!!????? That means she’s taking over £85,000 a year!! Jeeeepers. (Must be part of a bigger company who has a few cleaning ladies on the books)

Is £15/hour normal these days?

Given that the national living wage is currently £8.91, I’d guessed £10-12 an hour would be about right.


I’m surprised there aren’t dozens of ads in our local shop, if it’s possible to earn £15 an hour for cleaning locally.

I don't know. I'll ask my butler.

Unfortunately many have taken up cleaning with no prior experience (thanks lockdown).

My GF is a housekeeper in a very large semi-stately home, the rates for good cleaners will be £12ph up.

A good cleaner is also willing to do trial day for free.

national living wage lol.

I guess you get what you pay for the same with all trades. Pay yourself to do it if you want to save some money :eagerness:

One of my daughters did it for a while a couple of years ago. She charged £10/hr and the company she worked through charged £2/hr on top.

£15-£18 per hour is probably not unrealistic.

Also, a person/company can choose to be VAT registered even if their turnover is below the threshold.

Our last cleaner was £12.50 an hour.


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Originally Posted by Dave+63

One of my daughters did it for a while a couple of years ago. She charged £10/hr and the company she worked through charged £2/hr on top.

£15-£18 per hour is probably not unrealistic.

Also, a person/company can choose to be VAT registered even if their turnover is below the threshold.

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If they choose to be VAT registered - they must have some ulterior motive, as it prices them out of most work, I’d have thought.

Cleaners were discussed on another forum years ago, and I always remember the advice from someone who had a lot of experience.

”Within a few weeks - he/she will know your entire life”.

Will be pretty expensive now as a lot of the Eastern European cleaners have gone home. I'd figure on around £16 per hour.

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I would imagine this differs hugely region to region and one thing to take into account is travelling. If a cleaner is doing 2 hours a week somewhere and it’s not very close to them, they will have to consider travel costs.

You might find advertising on your local FB village/town page beneficial.

15 an hour was the going rate a couple of years ago when we had one

Exactly. Travel to work, travel between every job, of which there will be several a day. There is no chance every hour of every working day is going to be filled.

Not quite £85k.

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Originally Posted by mr noble

Plus vat for a cleaner!!!!!!????? That means she’s taking over £85,000 a year!!

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Naive, Vat registration is optional

£12-15 per hour in my neck of the woods. We pay £12 and get a pretty decent clean out of a 5 hour shift.

It’s bloody hard work so good luck to them.

The one we had 6 years ago was brilliant and £9.50/hr

We have since had one who was £16 and was utterly useless. Literally couldn’t see dust or dirt. We had to clean after she’d left.

That’s the last time we had a cleaner and have managed ok ourselves, but having a 2 year old, a 10 week old and me being back to work full time……..a cleaner would be a very nice luxury to have.

£15/hr x 3 hours a week x 52 weeks =£2340 a year for the luxury.

Actually when I put in the figures, £15 doesn’t seem to steep.


Assuming a cleaner can manage 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, at £15/hr and for 46 weeks of the year, that’s an income of £20,700.

£10/hr for the same full time work would only earn them £13,800 a year.

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Originally Posted by MCFastybloke

Naive, Vat registration is optional

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Why would anyone register for VAT as a cleaner if they’re below the threshold? It’d be counterproductive to finding clients willing to pay it.

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Originally Posted by mr noble

Actually when I put in the figures, £15 doesn’t seem to steep.


Assuming a cleaner can manage 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, at £15/hr and for 46 weeks of the year, that’s an income of £20,700.

£10/hr for the same full time work would only earn them £13,800 a year.

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Yeah, I was having trouble with the OP's £85k p/a!

40 hours (ignoring any travel time, breaks) x 47 weeks a year x £18.50 is under £20,000.

Ninja edit - ah, is £85,000 the VAT threshold? OK, no matter. Still, feels like £20k p/a isn't much.

Ours charges £13 an hour.

Ours kept going up yearly. Covid came and they haven't been back. We have someone else, very nice person and cheaper, but not that good. A lot of dust etc still and she has trouble using the vacuum it appears and she prefers to sweep and mop rather than vacuum and mop.

We paid our housekeeper COP 60,000 per day in Bogotá, which is about 12 quid, and got told off for paying over the odds...

We did also pay about the same to cover pension, healthcare, clothing, etc. But the 60,000 was what she took home.

I got mine for a one-off payment of 75p in 1972.

A good cleaner certainly earns their money, we've just never felt the need (we share the cleaning of both our properties). Have many friends who have them though (one guy is out of sheer laziness, sure he doesn't even know how the work the iron!).

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Originally Posted by MCFastybloke

Naive, Vat registration is optional

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So, in reality - why would anyone register for VAT if not compelled to?

I'm not seeing it.

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Originally Posted by mr noble

Why would anyone register for VAT as a cleaner if they’re below the threshold? It’d be counterproductive to finding clients willing to pay it.

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In a situation where clients are predominately Vat Registered,commercial, in this situation it would allow the reclaiming of Vat added to any business expenses, supplies,vehicles,fuel etc and the vat levied would be neutral to those invoiced. Or Section 14 or Builders cleans for new build. I am Vat Reg and rarely approach the threshold nowadays, the sectors and clients dictate the benefits of the registered status.

F me I'll clean it for ya for £15 an hour. I'll also completely renovate your home for less. I'm a qualified chippy and I'm doing work for less than that. I need to sort myself out.

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Originally Posted by sprite1275

F me I'll clean it for ya for £15 an hour. I'll also completely renovate your home for less. I'm a qualified chippy and I'm doing work for less than that. I need to sort myself out.

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Also in construction, things have moved on a lot.

Ask yourself, how many hours can they actually charge for during the working day? (Travel between jobs etc).

£15 isn’t really a lot once advertising / travel costs etc are taken into account.

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Originally Posted by Dave O'Sullivan

Ask yourself, how many hours can they actually charge for during the working day? (Travel between jobs etc).

£15 isn’t really a lot once advertising / travel costs etc are taken into account.

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I agree. I’d say they can only work for 6 hours a day, which puts them in £20k a year if they were full time.

Fair enough.


I was just interested to hear people’s views.

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Originally Posted by Qatar-wol

40 hours (ignoring any travel time, breaks) x 47 weeks a year x £18.50 is under £20,000.

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How are you getting this figure? [emoji848]

My wife’s pay £20 an hour to the cleaning lady as I am a way so much recently to help her, though it was reasonable and she seems to do a good job. Bottom line, I would not care if it was more as long at the wife is happy and coping whilst I am away.

Our cleaner charges VND 2,500,000 (£77.50) per month. She's here for around 2-3 hours a time, three days per week. She also does the washing and ironing.

I don't think she'll commute :smile-new:

On a serious note, the biggest thing for me is trust. You can only get that through referral here, but then you have to trust the referee.

£10 an hour here, a great Polish lady who we employed when my wife first became pregnant and we’ve just kept her on

Would be lost without her to be honest

Back when we were paying £10 an hour in (outer) London, my mother was paying £15 in Cambridge. Our part of London had a large supply of (mainly) East Europeans offering the service, Cambridge less so. Quite a few of the local cleaners here were graduates!

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Originally Posted by jaytip

How are you getting this figure? [emoji848]

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Ha, fat fingers I guess! Sorry! Not my greatest contribution to a thead!

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Originally Posted by unclealec

I got mine for a one-off payment of 75p in 1972.

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Packed of ready salted crisps and a glass of Cherry B? Ah, those were the days.

Hmmm . .Yeah.Watch collectors having unknown people in their homes while their presumably out.Il do My own cleaning.

How life has changed, we had five kids, I worked full time which was normally 50+ hours 5 1/2 days a week and my wife worked part time and I can honestly say our house was always very clean and the kids were turned out spotless every day, we never had help and never asked for any, different times, helps that my wife is a cleanliness fanatic but I or my kids never complained :)

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Originally Posted by mr noble

Wife has persuaded me to get a cleaner again, now we have baby number two who’s 10 weeks old.

Last time we had a cleaner was about 6/7 years ago and we paid her £9.50 an hour and she was brilliant.


It seems that now, in a village near Cambridge, it’s £15 an hour min, and we even had a quote from one advert in the local mini magazine, for £18.50 plus VAT.

Plus vat for a cleaner!!!!!!????? That means she’s taking over £85,000 a year!! Jeeeepers. (Must be part of a bigger company who has a few cleaning ladies on the books)

Is £15/hour normal these days?

Given that the national living wage is currently £8.91, I’d guessed £10-12 an hour would be about right.


I’m surprised there aren’t dozens of ads in our local shop, if it’s possible to earn £15 an hour for cleaning locally.

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Pay your wife the £15 per hour (cash).
She will probably be delighted and you will be keeping the money “in the firm”.
Win Win [emoji106]


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How much they charge per hour is fairly irrelevant, the question is how much do they do in an hour, if a good one charges £20 per hour and does the same amount of work as one that charges £12 per hour you’re ahead, then theirs trustworthiness, integrity, discretion, references

My mum charges between £12-16 an hour, she has a waiting list, spaces only come up when someone dies, she did try and take someone on to help a few years ago, but they weren’t up to her standard.
The crap she has to put up with seems is unbelievable but she enjoys it.

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Originally Posted by blackal

So, in reality - why would anyone register for VAT if not compelled to?

I'm not seeing it.

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Flat rate VAT scheme can be a nice little extra earner if you have few VATable outgoings, you basically get to pocket some of the VAT you charge

£12.5/hr going rate around here. Full cleaning, ironing and all. Cleaning products we buy them but she brings cloths and everything she needs.

Not a lot on a yearly basis if you account for taxes and all.


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Originally Posted by Brighty

Flat rate VAT scheme can be a nice little extra earner if you have few VATable outgoings, you basically get to pocket some of the VAT you charge

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You used to make a reasonable amount, but that was eroded several years ago - to be 'just' on the positive side.

And - on purchases - (I believe) that you can only claim vat back on items purchased over £2k (inc vat) on single invoices. (say 4 items from John Lewis to £2,001, or any single item over £2,000)