House cleaner preparing to start the job
Tipping is a common courtesy in the United States and we often tip the people that help us or provide us with a service. One of the most commonly used services across the country is house cleaning services, but many of us are unsure of whether we should tip the people that clean our houses and what an appropriate amount would be for the tip. Here are some guidelines that you can follow that will help you make the right decision on tipping house cleaners.
Two Types Of House Cleaners
Homeowners typically hire house cleaners in one of two ways. The first way is to hire a specific person or team to take care of your house cleaning duties. These house cleaners are generally scheduled to clean the home once a week or several times in a month to take care of a wide variety of general household tasks. When you hire house cleaners this way, you will see the same faces every time they come to clean your home.
The second method of hiring house cleaners is to sign a contract with a cleaning service to have certain cleaning tasks performed on a regular basis. These house cleaning visits typically consists of several team members coming to your home to do deep cleaning tasks that are more specialized, like shampooing all of the carpets or washing the inside and outside of the home’s windows. For these service calls, you tend to get whoever is scheduled to work at the time unless you make a specific request.
Each of these scenarios have different approaches for tipping.
Tipping Your House Cleaner
If you have hired your house cleaners directly, you are generally charged an hourly rate for their services. An appropriate tip for their services would be a percentage of their hourly rate, much like you would tip barbers, hairdressers, and waitresses for their services. For regular visits, a tip of 10% to 20% is appropriate per visit. To make it easy on yourself, plan on tipping between $10 and $20 per service call. If the house cleaners are performing special or onerous tasks during their visit or if it is around the holidays, a higher tip may be warranted.
Tipping Workers With A House Cleaning Service
If you have contracted with a cleaning company to have cleaning services performed by their team, the tipping aspect gets a little more complicated. You might not even know how many people are coming to clean your home until they get there. In these cases, the simplest way to find out whether you should tip the workers is to ask the cleaning company that is sending them.
In some cases, cleaning companies explicitly say that tipping is not required because the wages they pay their cleaners per hour ensures that they will not have to rely on tips to make a living wage. Other companies allow their workers to accept tips from customers for good service, although tips are never required. When tipping house cleaners with an agency, you can offer them a cash tip and allow them to decide whether to accept it or graciously decline. Again, $10 to $20 per service call is probably appropriate.
Conclusion
Tipping is a way to show someone who performs a service for you that you appreciate the work they have done. Tipping house cleaners for doing an exceptional job is a good way to show them that you like the work that they have done and makes it more likely that they will want to return to do just as good of a job as before.
Toi Williams began her writing career in 2003 as a copywriter and editor and has authored hundreds of articles on numerous topics for a wide variety of companies. During her professional experience in the fields of Finance, Real Estate, and Law, she has obtained a broad understanding of these industries and brings this knowledge to her work as a writer.
