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amother

Blue

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:04 pm

Just moved to a new city and contemplating getting once a week cleaning help. I speak Spanish fluently so looking to cut costs with a cleaner who doesnt speak English. Never had help before. Can anyone guide me where to start looking? what are normal prices?

mommy3b2c

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:12 pm

What does her language have to do wih saving money?

ra_mom

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:14 pm

I pay my Spanish speaking cleaning woman the same as my English speaking cleaning woman.

amother

Blue

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:28 pm

Meaning if she cant speak English she has less of a client pool (?) so therefore I would hire her but expect a lower rate. Did I make this up?

ra_mom

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:30 pm

Where I live, good cleaning help is snapped up, regardless of language. People use hand motions to communicate, have notes translated into Spanish...

amother

Blush

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:31 pm

amother wrote:

Meaning if she cant speak English she has less of a client pool (?) so therefore I would hire her but expect a lower rate. Did I make this up?

Google translate.

trixx

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:37 pm

OP you're not being unreasonable. Out of town (out of ny where every woman knows 5 ppl who desp need a cleaning lady) it's harder to find work if they don't speak English, aren't legal and or can't drive. Personal experience
Hang up a note in your local fast food restaurant (not a chain, a neighborhood one where the busboys are all Mexicans) pizza place or 711 type store. Looking for cleaning help and your phone number. This is how my parents have always found their cleaning help and manual labor

amother

Blue

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 8:46 pm

Thanks Trixx, that's a good idea!

Obviously hard to know if they're trustworthy that way but that's a whole other discussion ; )

mommy3b2c

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 9:35 pm

amother wrote:

Meaning if she cant speak English she has less of a client pool (?) so therefore I would hire her but expect a lower rate. Did I make this up?

Yes. Yes you did.

SplitPea

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 10:48 pm

I live in Far Rockaway here the ones that speak no English typically get $1-2/hour less than those who do. It's not a huge difference

MamaBear

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:04 pm

Deep thought of the day: does her inability to speak English means she deserves lower pay for the same work?

zaq

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:09 pm

SplitPea wrote:

I live in Far Rockaway here the ones that speak no English typically get $1-2/hour less than those who do. It's not a huge difference

It is if that's your only parnassah.

smss

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:26 pm

MamaBear wrote:

Deep thought of the day: does her inability to speak English means she deserves lower pay for the same work?

It may not be the same work if miscommunications are happening and there are some things you can't even ask her to do because you can't communicate them.

(I don't have a cleaning lady, Spanish-speaking or otherwise, just musing...)

amother

Gray

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:26 pm

I live in South Florida. The going rate is 10-12 an hour. Most don't speak English. There are parts in Miami where no one speaks English. I mean you can walk into Macy's and find NO one that speaks English. Still they make the same as someone that does speak English. Some are not legal, but most are in the process of getting their papers and have permission to work. For example, my cleaning lady is married to a Cuban, that has political asylum, and so she also gets political asylum even though she is Columbian.
I pay my lady by the day,$80, no matter how long it takes her to clean. It can take her 6 hrs or 10 hrs. It's up to her, how fast she wants to work, but on a typical day she finishes in 5.5-6 hrs. Sometimes I have her do more things, like Erev Pesach, but I never exceed 8 hrs.
She anticipates Erev Pesach, so mid February(2 moths before) she asks me if she can start doing the upstairs for "the holiday". I never let food upstairs, so it's more like organizing, dusting,etc.

groovy1224

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:40 pm

MamaBear wrote:

Deep thought of the day: does her inability to speak English means she deserves lower pay for the same work?

Yes, because it's a lot more difficult to get her to do the same work. As others have said, you have to use Google translate, or have a friend translate for you. It's kind of a pain, so it makes the whole experience less convenient.

amother

Blush

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:44 pm

SplitPea wrote:

I live in Far Rockaway here the ones that speak no English typically get $1-2/hour less than those who do. It's not a huge difference

This is a lot. This is about $3000 a year difference for me or about one third of one of my tuitions. I teach personal finance and small expenses add up if they are repeated.

The cleaning ladies typically start out at a lower rate and then they increase when they learn a little about a Jewish home and soak rudimentary English.

MamaBear

Mon, Oct 26 2015, 11:53 pm

No comprendo?

The OP speaks Spanish. She should try to pay less money when she can communicate with the cleaning lady perfectly fine?

Sometimes paying someone more encourages them to do a better job and work harder to keep the job.

It may even can leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside to pay someone a decent wage to scrub your toilets.

trixx

Tue, Oct 27 2015, 12:19 am

I don't get why you're all jumping on OP. where I'm from YES the spanish-speaking people all work in restaurant kitchens or men stand on street corners waiting to be picked up by building contractors bc they can't nanny for anyone/be hired legally. so yes they will take any job they can get. it all depends where OP is from. again far rockaway, NY, lakewood or monsey or any frum area where everyone is dying for a cleaning lady, doesn't have this problem but any out of town community will.

Mama Bear

Tue, Oct 27 2015, 12:37 am

I find that I lose about an hour or more just sitting at the computer using google translate back and forth with my cleaning lady... and the grammar/syntax is so off half the time, that neither of us understand what the other is saying! Especially if you misspell one word by one letter, then the entire sentence makes no sense!
She's good and fast and clean though, and I'm glad she's not leaving me - they all leave after one or two times coming, bc they find full time jobs elsewhere.

Raisin

Tue, Oct 27 2015, 6:23 am

MamaBear wrote:

Deep thought of the day: does her inability to speak English means she deserves lower pay for the same work?

yes. If I knew other languages fluently I would be able to get some great well paying jobs.

I guess all these big multi nationals are discriminating against me since I don't speak polish or chinese.

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