As the usual debate goes on about the increase to minimum wage and how that affects the economy and jobs, I thought I would look at a broader issue for cleaners and the cleaning industry.
Low pay, low standards? Why is cleaning so price driven? Why is cleaning never seen as a professional job in its own right with the usual associated pay and conditions? Lots of whys right?
Cleaning is just a dead end job that people who cant find other work or are in between other jobs or due to some set of circumstances do? Right? Well some would agree...
The following is from a business forum -
Small business owners getting rich from paying staff peanuts?? yeah right
Floor Sweeper £8.50 per hour Has it not occured to you that if you pay the floor sweeper £8.50 per hour then the warehouse staff for instance would want £10-12 per hour, the forklift truckdriver on £10 would then want £15 per hour, the manager would then want upwards of £35k!
To employe your floor sweeper a small shop for instance would be shelling out around £21k a year if you include employers NI
There is a valid argument here and ties in with skilled workers vs non skilled workers and their corresponding pay. However one could argue that cleaners would indeed be more skilled and the industry more professional if they were paid higher wages.
The argument of comparing non skilled workers vs skilled workers may have some validity with comparing a surgeon with a truck driver but does the same hold true when comparing a cleaner with a forklift driver?
Why is cleaning seen as purely a non skilled sector and a dead end job. For many people it suits them ideally, particularly if its part time job which they can fit round other parts of their life, such as childcare, education other work commitments etc.
If clients were willing to pay higher rates (and in my opinion this is the crucial factor) then cleaners could be sent on more courses - yes professional cleaning is more than just pushing a vacuum cleaner around, standards and keeping and recruiting good professional cleaning staff would be much easier.
Clients demand a professional service but wish to pay extremely low prices which makes it impossible to pay professional pay which means cleaning will never be a profession, and so it goes, and so it goes.
This is an interesting area that we as cleaning companies cannot delve too deeply into, do you want the work or not will be the client’s response, then do it at the lowest price.
Clients want their premises cleaned to the highest standards, a job they are not usually prepared to do themselves, they also want someone reliable, trustworthy, professional, conscientious but then are only prepared to pay way less than what they would ever consider working for, herein lies the contradiction.
Professional rates means you can have professionals.
Low pay, low standards? Why is cleaning so price driven? Why is cleaning never seen as a professional job in its own right with the usual associated pay and conditions? Lots of whys right?
Cleaning is just a dead end job that people who cant find other work or are in between other jobs or due to some set of circumstances do? Right? Well some would agree...
The following is from a business forum -
Small business owners getting rich from paying staff peanuts?? yeah right
Floor Sweeper £8.50 per hour Has it not occured to you that if you pay the floor sweeper £8.50 per hour then the warehouse staff for instance would want £10-12 per hour, the forklift truckdriver on £10 would then want £15 per hour, the manager would then want upwards of £35k!
To employe your floor sweeper a small shop for instance would be shelling out around £21k a year if you include employers NI
There is a valid argument here and ties in with skilled workers vs non skilled workers and their corresponding pay. However one could argue that cleaners would indeed be more skilled and the industry more professional if they were paid higher wages.
The argument of comparing non skilled workers vs skilled workers may have some validity with comparing a surgeon with a truck driver but does the same hold true when comparing a cleaner with a forklift driver?
Why is cleaning seen as purely a non skilled sector and a dead end job. For many people it suits them ideally, particularly if its part time job which they can fit round other parts of their life, such as childcare, education other work commitments etc.
If clients were willing to pay higher rates (and in my opinion this is the crucial factor) then cleaners could be sent on more courses - yes professional cleaning is more than just pushing a vacuum cleaner around, standards and keeping and recruiting good professional cleaning staff would be much easier.
Clients demand a professional service but wish to pay extremely low prices which makes it impossible to pay professional pay which means cleaning will never be a profession, and so it goes, and so it goes.
This is an interesting area that we as cleaning companies cannot delve too deeply into, do you want the work or not will be the client’s response, then do it at the lowest price.
Clients want their premises cleaned to the highest standards, a job they are not usually prepared to do themselves, they also want someone reliable, trustworthy, professional, conscientious but then are only prepared to pay way less than what they would ever consider working for, herein lies the contradiction.
Professional rates means you can have professionals.
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