What would a house cleaner make????

The is a lady that comes in and does light house work for us. She spends 3-4 hours every other week. Then 3-4 times each year she does a complete cleaning of the house. This usually takes her 1 1/2 days. She refuses any payment for herself. If she brings her daughter she will let me pay the girl. This lady has been doing this for over twenty years for us.

Here is the back story. I met this lady when she was dead broke with three kids and ZERO money. She had a dead beat husband that took off with all their money with her having two kids under two. The other one was only four. Long story short she was living in her car that was out of gas. My first wife and I brought her home with us an she lived in my Grand Mother's quarters. She stayed with us for about six months. It took some time for her to regain her confidence in herself. She helped my first wife as she was going through her worst cancer treatments. This lady basically did all the work at times when my wife was at her sickest. When one of the rental houses became empty she moved in there and started doing house work for people to make her living. She now has four women working for her and she now owns the house she moved into.

She refuses any kind of payment. I have tried. She will not cash a check and returns any cash I give her. I just do not feel right about this. I know she feels beholden to us. That is not what we intended or want. So we are trying to put a monetary figure on what she has done for us. My wife and I are updating our wills. We want to bequest this fine lady something. I want it to be at least more than she would have earned.

So if she works 4 hours every other week. Would $50 per time seem about right??? That would be $12.5 an hour. Does that sound about right???

I have tried to find out what she charges but it varies a lot according to what the people she works for can afford. She slides her rates. It varies from $7.50 to almost $20 an hour. So what number should I use???? I am for using a higher number and just going with it but my wife thinks that the lady maybe insulted if we put too high of a figure together. I do not know what to do for sure.

Helping her never cost us a dime. The value of what she did from day one was more than any cost we had. She is a good person that just hit hard times.

Give her a new Cadillac now and leave her the South 40 in your will. True Son

I live alone and am only at my house half time, so I have a lady once a month. She spends about 6 hours and wants only $65 but she works hard, does a good job, and has kids to feed so I give her sat least $75 ans we call the difference a "tip" for her good work. I pay her in cash which makes it a bit more valuable to her in the long run. Sounds like you are being quite fair.

We pay our lady $75 each time she cleans our house (usually every other week). She usually spends about 4-5 hours here and does great work. Sometimes she brings her granddaughter to help. She doesn't ask for more $ for the granddaughter to help. If between the two of them they get it done in only 3-4 hours we still pay the $75. If they are both here for the whole 5 hours, we usually give her a little more. She's happy and so are we.

Amish girl helps us out once a month and charges $12 per hour, and goes like a whirlwind. I think what you have done and are doing is admirable and that lady knows and will always appreciate what you have done forher by giving a hand up instead of a hand out. Sometimes a gift that only they can use is a nice gesture, like a gift certificate for a nice restaurant or a weekend at a spa or something can make both giver and receiver feel good.

Ben

Maybe check out her vehicle. Maybe you could take it in for a service/tune-up? Or have a new set of tires put on the vehicle? Ask the daughter what she might like for her house?

Lots of other ways that you can even the scoreboard a bit that she would appreciate better than cash.

Until about a year ago we had a lady who would clean our not very big house every week. it would take her about 3 1/2 hours and she worked very quickly. We paid her $65.00.

Good ideas Dick2 Thanks

How old are her kids?Are they responsible? Maybe you could start a savings account for them in their names or help towards their education-not sure how much this would total up to over the years or if that is how far you want to go back.She sounds like someone with high integrity and standards that hopefully her kids also have;kids always need a little help starting out.Mark

You appreciate what she did for you. She appreciates what you did for her.
You might try something like the following.
Tell her you'd like to provide the funds for her to help the next person down the line.
Agree on an amount along the terms you asked in this post
Bring her kids into the conversation.
Gives you both a next step to be proud of.

Back in the seventies and eighties I think my mom charged between ten and maybe fifteen dollars an hour..

J. D. Sounds like what she is doing for you as a silent way of saying thank you for what you've done for her when she was down and out ! She now has four woman working for her now, which means she must be doing well now. "BUT" you feel you want to do something else for her now! Maybe paying for an on going add in the local news paper. Find out where she gets her cleaning supply's,and go there and give them a check anomalously to cover some supply's.Just tell them to tell her "No Charge" each time she comes in....Just a thought! J.D. Sounds like your a man with a "BIG" heart....Jim in N.M.

$50 a week X 52 weeks x 25 years + $15k for income tax = $80,000.
Round it off to $100k if you really appreciate what she is doing.

I pay 10 an hour cash to the two ladies that take care of stuff here. Its pretty flexible, they can take as many and as long a smoke breaks as they want, come when the wish, leave when they wish. Only real requirements other than keep it below my ick factor is one trip a week to grocery and pharmacy, and make sure moms meds are fixed for each week. One works about 25 hrs, the other about 10 on average.

I am with a couple others, do something for her now. Home repair, car repair, or take it a step farther.If you know a charity that helps out locally donate in her name. Or maybe start an endowment at a local bank for down and out single moms. I like others on here believe in you and believe you will come up with the best way to help a good woman. God bless you.

We pay two sisters $60 once a month and they take about 1 1/2 hours.

I pay a lady $50.00. She comes every other week
and works 4 hours.

How about sending her a receipt for "paid in full for services rendered", Include a Thank you card for all that she did for you and your wife, and then add that the only way that you will be able to allow her to provide additional service will be if she will accept payment.
Thinking out loud
SDE