What is a reasonable payment for 10 hours of housecleaning? and 10 hours of yardwork?

10 dollars an hour, easy. It’s physical labor! But if it’s your friend… then maybe $200 a day. I think that’s fair.

It sounds like the work has been done, and the payment was not decided before the work started. So, this could be difficult—your friend might ask for less, since he is a friend, or suggest more than you wanted—because he needs to work, and you must have the money. Either way, it could be awkward. What I pay people for yardwork and housework vary according to their experience—and it is a rather large range. No less than minimum wage for the outside work to $25 an hour. And for housekeeping, it seems to be between $20 and $30 an hour these days (usually I get an estimate for the whole thing, and then they just get it done very fast).

So, this is a one time gig that lasted two days? i agree with andreaxjean on the $200.00 for both days. 20 hours for two days of manual labor, can be very stressful. $200 is reasonable.

Your minimum wage is $8.55 per hour, right? Work like that is probably worth around minimum wage, but since it’s a friend you might choose to pay more to help the person out. I’d pay about $10 per hour for it.

Agree with the ideas above. If they did an exceptional job than you may want to pay 500. I will easily cost at $300 and up just to clean a home. I use to clean homes with a contracting business and they would charge 250 just to vacuum and clean your bathrooms and kitchen. Extra 80 dollars if they did the stove. Dusting was also included. And that was in a home that wasn’t that dirty to begin with. The dirtier the house or the largeness of the house increased the price as well. For 10 hours they did a lot, so that would’ve definetly cost over 300 just for the house. Yard work is even more expensive. If that took 10 hours than it is a huge yard or there was a lot of trimming involved and raking.

@andreaxjean You do realise 20×10=200, that is how much ten an hour would turn out to be. So if they were friends your saying they should pay 200, even though thats what you said you would charge anyone, so where is the difference, maybe 150?

Anyways I was also going to suggest 10 an hour, thats what my mom charges. But yea if it is a friend maybe 8 an hour, thats usually what she will drop it to for her friends. Good Luck!

We pay $10 an hour for both yard work and housework, with a bonus if they are quick and thorough.

I think @andreaxjean is right. At the very least, these jobs should pay 10$ an hour. And if the jobs have been done particularly well, you should pay them more.

$10 an hour cash is fair.

i would say about 7.00 per hour is reasonable for light to medium labor (dusting, vacuuming, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, etc) 10.00 to 12.00 per hour for mostly medium work (moving furniture like upholstered chairs and end tables, upright carpet cleaning machine, painting, digging weeds, cutting back heavy bushes, planting bulb plants, etc) and 16.00 to 20.00 per hour for intensive hard work (laying carpet, installing drywall, rebuilding stairs, pouring concrete, tilling a large plot of soil, shoveling out animal pens, etc)
what it really boils down to though is (a.) what can you afford (b.) what is he expecting and (.c) how much labor was done.
an example: when i movied a few months ago, i was on a very tight budget and all i could afford for my little sister’s boyfriesn and my co-worker from the hotel i work at was 50.00 each, i told them this up front and did as much of the heavy lifting as i could manage myself.
the real important thing when you hirer someone for a job is to tell them up front what the job entails and work out the pay rate ahead of time. it is bad business to work some one then tell them the pay when they finish. would you take a job if they told you “you’ll be paid in two weeks, we’ll figure out then what your salary will be”?
you need to sit down with your employee and work out what they expect vs what you can spend.

I pay $ 22.50 an hour for housecleaning and do most yardwork myself. I pay a high rate because the person doing the work is utterly trustworthy as well as doing a damned good job. We also have an agreement that any gossip about the household will result in immediate dismissal. NF

I’d pay them at least $200. The job must have been done well or you wouldn’t have had them back the second day so I’d kick it up to $250—$275.

Yes, always best to pay very well for part time or occasional work.

I pay my gardener buddy $20 an hour, and he is always at my beck and call!

Scott I need a blow job! lol

@Trance24 Haha, ok. So the math I was doing in my head last night was a little out of whack. I’m still sticking with my answer because @skfinkel is right about usual landscaping and house cleaning companies charging about $25 per hour. There are some places here in Pennsylvania that charge $45—$70 per hour. Like I said… since he’s a friend, I think $10 an hour should do.

Shooot i do that everyday for free at my house. I would do it for you for a hundred. i would be happy.

@andreaxjean Tis ok well all get a lil whacky with math sometimes. I agree though $10 an hour.

We pay the “cleaning lady” $100 for house cleaning, it only takes her 2–3 hours. And that’s the going rate where I’m from in L.A.