How to Ask For a Raise in House Cleaning

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

How to ask for a raise in house cleaning is not as scary as you might think. If you're due for a wage increase but don't know how to ask for a raise this one's for you.

How to ask for a raise in house cleaning is not as scary as you might think. If you’re due for a wage increase but don’t know how to ask for a raise this one’s for you.

Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru says you can get paid more but you have to know how to ask for a raise.

A housekeeping salary is up for negotiation in every cleaning business. Earn more and get more money.

Listen: How to Ask for a Raise in House Cleaning

Watch: How to Ask for a Raise in House Cleaning

Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.

When can you ask for a raise? Oh, that is a great question and we’re going to talk about that today.

How to Ask for a Raise in House Cleaning

All right, today we have a question from a house cleaner that wants to know how to ask for a raise.

Question: I’m working as a full- time housekeeper and I have almost three years with my employer. I have never had an increase in my salary. So, I would like to ask after how many years do they increase the salary? And if I’m going to talk to my employer, how much of an increase to ask for.

I Can Help You Ask for a Raise

Since you want a salary increase and my guess is that you are an employee. You are not the person that goes in and negotiates the contracts with the customers. So, this will be you going to your house cleaning boss and asking for a raise.

Now I want to back up just a second and I want to give a blanket statement that there is no right or wrong time to ask for a raise. You can ask for a raise at any time during the hiring process.

Ask on the day you’re hired when you get a raise. Ask your boss “If I perform and I live up to my end of the bargain, when do I get a raise?”

That gives both of you a date to look forward to. At that point, you will get a raise or receive an evaluation for a raise.

There’s No Right or Wrong Time to Ask for a Raise

If you’ve been working for the company for a long period of time, you can go ask tomorrow. Before you ask, I want you to do this. I want you to sit down and make a list of all the things you do. Compare it with the list of requirements for the job.

If the skills you now have far exceed the skills the company hired you for, you have earned the right to ask for a raise. If you show up every day doing the same list at the same speed with no improvement, you can’t request more money. You’re doing exactly what you agreed on at that rate.

Here’s the risk. If you ask for more money and you haven’t brought any more value to the hour, they can replace you. They will hire someone else at the same rate to do the same tasks. Does that make sense?

Your Pay Reflects Your Value

You don’t get paid by the hour, you get paid for the value that you bring to the hour.

Let’s say that you get hired to do a certain series of house cleaning tasks. And in your spare time, you improve your business skills. You read books about leadership. And you listen to podcasts about managing employees, different chemicals, cleaning supplies and techniques. You find ways to work smarter nor harder.

Then, you come back and you’re more efficient at work. You manage the other employees and the coworkers better. And your communication skills have improved, and you work better with the customers.

Now you bring more value to the hour than when they hired you.

Create a List

Now, you can make a list of all the things you have done to enhance your skills. You go to your boss and you say, “Hey, I’m a new person. Since I took this job at this pay, I’ve learned all these other skills that I’m now applying to this job. I bring more value to the hour, so I’d like to make a little more money.”

Do you see how that works? It’s so exciting.

Make Yourself Indispensable

At this point, you’ve become indispensable. That means they can’t replace you because you’ve learned so many things. The only thing that makes sense is for them to give you more money so that you don’t leave and go to another company.

If you’ve learned all these things and they don’t give you a raise, you can take this list of skills that you have to another company and ask for more money. So, they run the risk of losing you. Does that make sense?

You are a Small Business Owner

Check this out. As a small business owner, and I know you’re just an employee. But I want you to think of yourself as a small business owner. If you are learning and developing as a professional, there’s always room for negotiation. Always.

So, if you go to the company owner and say, “Hey, I would like more money,” look at your boss as your client. You are a business of one and your employer is your client. You are in control.

So, you go to your boss and you say, “I would like more money.” They say, “We don’t have it in the budget. We would love to give it to you at some point,” and they agree to the value that you have brought.

You can say, “Is there profit sharing available to me? If I help you reach a certain number of houses that we clean, can I have a percentage of the profits?” And it might be 2%, it might be 3%, but that money adds up. It might be $25 per house that you bring in if you bring in a referral.

There is More Than One Way to Get a Raise

And so, there are different ways that you can make extra money even though it may not be per hour. Maybe you and the company owner can find a way for you to make more money.

That will get more money in your pocket. If there’s no other money to make, and you need more money to pay your bills, you may have to go out on your own.

Asking for a Raise May Lead to a New Opportunity

But here’s the catch. Now, you have all these other skills that you have learned. And if you have been upfront with your boss, they may help you out.

What they might say is, “You know what? We Love you enough and believe in you enough, but we can’t pay you any more money. Here’s what we’ll do. We can give you all our overflow business and replace you at our company and spin you out on your own.

You can go get your own clients and have your own business, and we will help you grow. Extra referrals will be passed on to you as we have them.”

Instead of giving you more money, they can help you start your own business.

Now You Know How to Earn Your Raise

Don’t ask for a raise unless you bring some new skills to the conversation.

Make it easy for them to say yes. Prove to them that you bring more value to the hour and deserve more money.

I hope that helps a little bit. I hope it sheds a light on the opportunity of growth. If it does and you found this helpful, please share this. And until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.