Hi!! I (F 26) have been working as a house cleaner since 2016. I’m good at what I do, fast, and meticulous. I have a friend (M 22) who started cleaning earlier this year who has waaay less experience than me. I was surprised when I found out that he was able to charge as much as me when I have almost 6 years of experience and he has about 1. For context, I get paid around 20-24$ per hour at my jobs, and he has been making 20-25$ per hour.
Yesterday he reached out to me and told me that he had been talking to another cleaner with more experience than me, who told him that as cleaners we should be charging 25-35$ per hour. He has also been getting paid 25$ an hour at some jobs without even specifically asking for it. He told me that he thinks I should be charging 30$ per hour. However, this seems like such a steep increase to ask of my clients (to go from 20 to 30). I’m also doubtful that all my clients would be able to afford me even at 25$ an hour.
Whenever I think about this I start feeling queasy and nervous. I have asked a bunch of my friends about if they think it would be reasonable to charge this much and everyone has responded pretty positively. I was thinking of giving all my clients a month’s notice of my plan to increase my rate to 25$. I am planning to send individual emails/messages to each client so that they have time to think it over. I have made up my mind to leave the jobs that don’t agree to pay me more after the 1 month’s warning.
As a worker, I feel like it is so easy to feel like I’m not worth more, and to subscribe to the idea that I should be hustling hard to make money. Writing this out makes me feel so nervous. I want to charge 30$ an hour but I’m going to start with 25$ and see how that goes. Does this sounds crazy? Does anyone have advice about how to make this transition go a bit smoother?
Thank you 🙂