Raise for house cleaner?

[jgenie]

We have had the same house cleaner for 15 years and she is like family to us. We give her raises every so often. Right now, we pay her $100.00 every other week and she comes for 4-5 hours. We also give her a $250.00 bonus at Christmas. The way I see it, she is INVALUABLE to me and it is so hard to find good help. When you find a good one, you want to keep her.

This is our situation although it's been 13 yrs and she comes every week. We all love her and my boys adore her.

[BananaMama]

My cleaning lady told me flat out that she never raises her rates for existing customers. I give her a generous Xmas bonus.

[candaceb]

My cleaning lady set her rate originally, but I suspect she would never be bold enough to ask for a raise. When she started, we didn't have a kid and had less furniture than we have now. I have raised her check by $5 at the end of the year a few times now and I still think she is very reasonably priced. I give her a week's pay as a bonus every Christmas.

[daisysmom]

It is important to not think of housecleaners as employees unless you are paying social security and unemployment for them. For precisely that reason, we have not given raises either and try to clarify that she is in independent contractor and she sets her price. This year, she did approach us with a 10% price increase (she charges now $33 an hour). Ours comes weekly and we do like her very much.

[DualvansMommy]

So glad I asked here! It actually makes sense to me, otherwise having a house cleaner get expensive within few years!

I'll keep with same rate until she approaches me, if ever. But I'll be upping my Christmas bonus to her though, as I use her as our babysitter some nights.

Thanks for all the helpful comments!