Coronavirus

[Caracal]

This is already happening with workers in grocery stores and fast food.  They are getting the best raises I have seen in my lifetime.

I tried to hire someone on TaskRabbit to clean my apartment and the lowest price I could find was $75/hr. I mean, more power to the workers who can command a large premium... but I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more people jumping at that wage given that the job requires no qualifications. Not only is the risk of infection fairly minimal, it'd be easy to all but eliminate it by handing them the key and waiting in a restaurant across the street.

We don't pay the person who cleans our house by the hour, but is it 90 bucks and she's usually done in less than 70-80 minutes.

[Hegemony]

Around here the standard rate for housecleaners is $20 an hour, $25 an hour for the expensive ones.  We are in a Medium-to-High Cost of Living region.

[Vkw10]

This is already happening with workers in grocery stores and fast food.  They are getting the best raises I have seen in my lifetime.

I tried to hire someone on TaskRabbit to clean my apartment and the lowest price I could find was $75/hr. I mean, more power to the workers who can command a large premium... but I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more people jumping at that wage given that the job requires no qualifications. Not only is the risk of infection fairly minimal, it'd be easy to all but eliminate it by handing them the key and waiting in a restaurant across the street.

I know two ways to recruit house cleaner at reasonable rates. First, ask custodian at university if they know a good person who takes on house cleaning jobs in your area of town. Wait a couple of days and there's a good chance they'll give you the name and number of someone they know, if they don't want the job themselves. Second, find a 55+ apartment complex in your area and ask the manager if he knows who the residents hire for light housekeeping.

Here in Texas, our cleaner charges $30 an hour, minimum $90 a visit. Alternatively, you can agree on a weekly task list for a set amount on a set day, which is what we do. For $40 a week, she cleans two bathrooms and kitchen, sweeps and dusts 2-bedroom apartment, washes towels and bed linen, and makes beds every Friday. If I cancel on less than a week's notice, I owe her half. When we agreed on task list and price, she told me it would take less than two hours since we don't have pets, avoid clutter, and agreed to stay out of apartment on Friday mornings.

[dismalist]

This is already happening with workers in grocery stores and fast food.  They are getting the best raises I have seen in my lifetime.

I tried to hire someone on TaskRabbit to clean my apartment and the lowest price I could find was $75/hr. I mean, more power to the workers who can command a large premium... but I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more people jumping at that wage given that the job requires no qualifications. Not only is the risk of infection fairly minimal, it'd be easy to all but eliminate it by handing them the key and waiting in a restaurant across the street.

I know two ways to recruit house cleaner at reasonable rates. First, ask custodian at university if they know a good person who takes on house cleaning jobs in your area of town. Wait a couple of days and there's a good chance they'll give you the name and number of someone they know, if they don't want the job themselves. Second, find a 55+ apartment complex in your area and ask the manager if he knows who the residents hire for light housekeeping.

Here in Texas, our cleaner charges $30 an hour, minimum $90 a visit. Alternatively, you can agree on a weekly task list for a set amount on a set day, which is what we do. For $40 a week, she cleans two bathrooms and kitchen, sweeps and dusts 2-bedroom apartment, washes towels and bed linen, and makes beds every Friday. If I cancel on less than a week's notice, I owe her half. When we agreed on task list and price, she told me it would take less than two hours since we don't have pets, avoid clutter, and agreed to stay out of apartment on Friday mornings.

Roughly speaking, this is the same price as in Northern Virginia. Law of One Price Holds -- Market is working! :-)

[kaysixteen]

If it takes her less than 2 hours, at $30/hr, why do you pay her that $90 minimum?

[Vkw10]

If it takes her less than 2 hours, at $30/hr, why do you pay her that $90 minimum?

I don't. The $90 minimum is only for people who go with the hourly charge. I do the alternative, pay-by-the-job, for a regular weekly cleaning. My weekly cleaning is $40 and covers specific tasks which we agreed in advance.

[nebo113]

Why are we bitching about paying decent money for someone, probably a woman, to do a job we don't want to do?  Are you willing to pay a man more to mow your grass than a woman to clean your house?

[downer]

I'd like to bitch about both. But it is an interesting comparison. I was playing my lawn guy $75 for about an hour's work.

The lawn guy does supply his own machines. Cleaners generally insist that you supply all the cleaning materials.

[Caracal]

Why are we bitching about paying decent money for someone, probably a woman, to do a job we don't want to do?  Are you willing to pay a man more to mow your grass than a woman to clean your house?

That's sort of my feeling. Probably we could find somebody who charged less, but we can afford it. I buy enough stupid packages on Amazon supporting systems that pay people too little to work in crummy conditions.

[kaysixteen]

$30/hr is probably about three times what FL's minimum is.  I do not think it excessive, but I cannot abide customer A having to pay for time not used, such that when cleaner goes to customer B, and charges for work there, she'll be being paid twice for the same work time.  Who gets to do this?

[marshwiggle]

$30/hr is probably about three times what FL's minimum is.  I do not think it excessive, but I cannot abide customer A having to pay for time not used, such that when cleaner goes to customer B, and charges for work there, she'll be being paid twice for the same work time.  Who gets to do this?

Someone being paid a high premium has probably established a reputation for high quality and reliability. It would be stupid for someone in that situation to cut corners and lose a well-paying gig.

[Hegemony]

I know that rates here are $20-25 an hour because that's what my cleaning person charges. She says she charges $20 an hour because other people charge $25 and she wants to get those jobs rather than the other people, because she needs the money badly and is raising a child on her own. But I decided to pay her $30 an hour because, as I tell her, when she starts cutting back on clients, I want to be the one she cuts back on last. She is only the second cleaner I've had, out of about ten over 30 years, who is the full combination of good, reliable, and honest. This is worth more than gold, in my book. Oh the stories I could tell, about the cleaner who stole a table (when I asked her about the table, she said, "Oh, did you like that table?"; the one who brought her husband along supposedly to help clean, but he watched TV instead; the one who stole the contents of my medicine cabinet in the hopes, I guess, that at least one of those things was illicit; the one who stole an entire rosebush, leaving a forlorn hole in the ground .... etc.)

I had my current wonderful cleaner come every second week until this past March, when I had her stop coming altogether for pandemic reasons, but continued to pay her. In June she asked to come back, because she said most people had discontinued her services altogether because of the pandemic. So I raised her rate to coming every week, and continued to pay her for not coming. She tried to refuse the check, but I told her that when she saw the state of my house, after all this, she would realize that I am underpaying her. I can certainly afford it, and I know her well enough to know she's having a hard time.

[marshwiggle]

This whole conversation is fascinating for how it gives perspective to the debate about minimum wage. Simple rule so far:

Where quality matters, the minimum wage is mostly irrelevant.

[jimbogumbo]

Where quality matters, the minimum wage is mostly irrelevant.

That is true. However, the whole "dirty" jobs premise of Mike Rowe is that if the job is necessary, but few people are willing to do it, the same concept can apply.

[dismalist]

Where quality matters, the minimum wage is mostly irrelevant.

Well, no and yes. To ensure quality, one can engage in monitoring. [I stand behind my cleaning person's back, the whole time.] This can often get expensive! Another way of accomplishing quality assurance is to overpay the worker. That way, the worker loses a lot if a spotcheck reveals s/he did a lousy job and gets fired. This is a version of efficiency wages.

Now, if the minimum wage is below the efficiency wage, it doesn't bind and doesn't matter. However, if the minimum wage is above the efficiency wage, employment falls.

However, the whole "dirty" jobs premise of Mike Rowe is that if the job is necessary, but few people are willing to do it, ... .

then the wage will be higher than for clean jobs. Again, the minimum wage maybe low enough and not bind or high enough that too few are allowed to do the dirty jobs.