Friday 7 October 2011

Paying cleaners higher wages

As a cleaning company both affect us, but my question is would you be willing to pay substantially more - somewhere in the region of 25% if the cleaner was to receive the London Living Wage?(the money to go to the cleaners not the contractor)

As a bit of background, I do feel cleaners should be paid more but also realise times are extremely tough. However when times weren't so tough I tried some years back to push the fact that we were going to pay the cleaners more but this would entail slightly higher rates and pointed out all the benefits, after 6 months I had to stop this as we weren't winning any business at all, nada, niente, rien, zip.

The pluses are clear I would have thought to most people; cleaners are not so transient on higher wages, its easier to recruit and keep better cleaners, cleaners feel more valued, you could actually get professional people for professional pay etc.

It has in fact gone the other way in London, there is very little possibility of winning any work unless its at the lowest possible rate hence we all have to pay min wage to survive, and many jobs are simply not worth taking on at the rates clients are willing to pay and of course even then they expect the best possible service. The rates are far lower than 20/25 years ago for both cleaning companies and cleaners alike.

So would you be willing to put your hand in your pocket if the cleaner was to get higher wages and if not why not?

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