Paying a Living Wage to Cleaners Is Vital, and Here’s Why!
London, UK, 26th Nov 2021, ZEXPRWIRE, If the last few years of this pandemic has shown us anything, it is that in times of crisis, key workers come together and work harder than ever before. Cleaners all across the country have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic (and before) to keep us safe in our businesses and our homes. Cleaners are vital to this country and have been for years. Yet, a lot of cleaning companies treat their cleaners without the respect they deserve. So, today, we’re looking at why paying a living wage to cleaners is vital. Why it actually makes really good sense for all cleaning businesses to pay their cleaners a fair wage for everyone involved.
The living wage for cleaners vs minimum wage
Some cleaning companies believe that paying minimum wage to their cleaners is absolutely fine. If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t be a cleaner. After all, cleaning is a low paying job because it is easy and anyone can do it, right? Well, certainly many of us clean our own homes, but it takes a special person to clean businesses and other people’s homes all day long and then come home and clean theirs too! The fact is, cleaning is a service; it is an important and hard service. If cleaners hadn’t have been risking their own health throughout the pandemic, things could have been a lot worse for the UK in terms of death rates from covid-19.
The governments minimum wage is currently set to £8.91 for people over 23 years old. For 16-17 years old, the minimum wage is £4.62. For 18-20 years old it is £6.56, and for 21-22 years old, it is £8.36. And there is no increase in the minimum wage for people who live in London. This means, if you’re a cleaner in London and you’re over 23 years old, you’ll get £8.91 an hour from certain cleaning companies and be told you’re lucky to have it. The London living wage in 2021 (calculated by the Resolution Foundation) is currently set at £11.05 per hour.
What does this mean for cleaners?
If a cleaner is receiving minimum wage for all of the hours they are working, chances are they can’t pay their rent, especially if they live in London. This means they either have to find other cleaning work elsewhere or find a second job to supplement their income. This means that some cleaners are working 12 hours or more a day, just to survive, all because the government isn’t prepared to pay fair wages for a good days work right now. So, if you have cleaners come to your home or business and you notice they are tired, this could mean that they are working endlessly just to get by because the cleaning company they work for isn’t paying them a living wage.
Does the cleaning company you use pay a living wage to its cleaners?
But how can you tell if the cleaning company you use is paying their cleaners the living wage? After all, the government says that minimum wage is fine, so surely all cleaning companies are just paying minimum wage because there are always more cleaners to hire, right? Well, no, actually.
The Living Wage Foundation has made it their mission to get employers to increase their rates of pay from minimum wage to the living wage. So far, there are over 7,000 employers who are actively and voluntarily paying their staff more. You can see the list of these 7,000 employers (which includes companies from all sectors, not just cleaning companies) here. Cleaning Express is one of these 7,000 employers because we feel it is the right thing to do, and here’s why!
https://www.livingwage.org.uk/service-providers/all
What Living Wage means to our cleaners
Our cleaners can come to work knowing that the work they do during their day of cleaning will provide them with enough money to pay their rent and bills, buy food and even have money left to enjoy themselves in our beautiful city. They aren’t overworked or tired because they don’t need a second job to survive. They can also study now. As they aren’t working all the time, they can spend their evenings studying and going to college or with friends. Our cleaners aren’t stressed about money; they are happy because they are getting paid a good wage! The wage they deserve!
Paying our cleaners a living wage is extremely important to them and us. Because we pay our cleaners a good wage, we know they will work hard and be passionate about their work. We also know they will stick around. So we can provide comprehensive training to all of our cleaners so they can work hard for our customers, and do their jobs extremely well.
By giving our cleaners a living wage, we have improved their lives, our business and the end result for our customers. So, paying a living wage is vital for everyone, but no one more so than our cleaners!
Media contact:
Name: alex bogdanov
Email: [email protected]
Address: 44 Beaufort Court, Admirals Way, London E14 9XL
Ph.No: +44 203 633 0390
