How much should I pay for housekeeping services?

You don't have to pay much for housekeeping services. You can easily find someone who will charge you $20 per hour or less. But should you pay that much? In order for an independent housekeeper to earn the minimum wage, she should be paid  at least $25 an hour.  For someone to earn a living wage, they need to earn closer to $30 an hour. In DTLA, where housekeepers face additional expenses due to parking and traffic, the pay should be closer to $35. Those rates may seem exceptionally high for housecleaning, but this rate is needed a for an independent contractor to cover their expenses and be able have a decent life.    

Some expenses that housekeepers must manage are transportation, parking, supplies. In addition, they are also responsible for replacing items that they may break.  Accidents happen and a responsible cleaner will be accountable for their actions. If you pay low rates, your housekeeper may struggle to compensate you for damage.  A housekeeper can pay for general liability insurance, but will need to charge rates to support that additional cost.

So while you can pay less, the responsible choice is to pay a fair price.  But it can be hard to identify a fair price. To help you with your decision making process, Oranges & Lemons has developed a price comparison worksheet. Click on this link to access your copy of our comparison worksheet. Click on "Make a copy" to have a private copy saved to your google drive.