I have an interview today for a housekeeping job. This is for a homeowner, not a cleaning business.
Although I clean my own house all the time, I’ve never been paid as a housekeeper.
He says pay is negotiable, so if he asks me, what should I ask for ? A friend says $15.00 an hour. That sounds high to me. Is that about right ?
He says it’s a big house, knowing the area, it probably is a very big house.
I really want and need this job. It’s during school hours, so it’s something I can really do and I’m desparate for money. And I’ve been looking for quite a while now.
I employ a cleaning lady, and so do my retired parents.
I hired her based purely on personal recommendation. She was a neighbour, who had no experience, apart from keeping her own house clean. Neither of us knew what payment was right, so we had an amusing negotiation where she named a figure and I raised it!
She’s been cleaning for 14 years now and her family and mine are good friends.
My parents hired a national franchise cleaning service and are happy with the results. The payments were specified on the website.
So you probably need to decide whether this is a friendly personal negotiation, or a straight business deal.
The interview you mention makes it sound professional. Therefore you should do some research and find out what a local firm charges. You should also be ready to say what duties you will do. Are you expected to babysit? Will you do ironing? How many hours will you work?
I worked as a private housecleaner a bit, and the best way to work is to get a set series of duties, done on a specific day, and a set amount of money. That way, if you blaze through it, you’re done and out of there for the same money. An hourly rate penalizes you for working fast. The house I cleaned took me about an hour and a half, and I got $35 flat rate for it, and I could do it any time during working hours on Mondays. The cheque was left for me every week - he occasionally forgot, but it never went longer than two weeks.
Don’t feel too desperate, dragongirl - they want you to clean their house for them - you have power in this negotiation, too. Decide before going in how much you want to make, and what duties you will or won’t do, and negotiate from there. Don’t forget that you don’t have to give an answer right away, either - they tell you a figure, tell you the duties, and you are completely within your rights to say you would like to think about it, and tell them your answer the next day. If they try to rush you into a decision, that’s a good indicator that they probably wouldn’t be too pleasant to work for (thinking of you as a non-human, etc.)
If there’s not information on wages for housekeeping on the web for your area, you may want to call local cleaning services and ask what they charge. Could give you a general idea of the local market situation.
Of course, how much you will charge will be largely determined by what duties the homeowner expects you to perform.