tipping cleaners

January 15, 2021 6:30 PM

The cleaning service I use sent a text to all customers about COVID-related measures, including a bit about asking people not to leave cash tips for their cleaners. Since the pandemic started, I have been leaving a cash tip (15-25% of the overall cleaning cost) for the cleaners each time they come. What should I do?

We haven't had good luck transitioning to somebody who isn't with a cleaning service. Please also take it as a given that giving up professional cleaning isn't an option for us right now.

If the more moral option is to keep leaving the cash tip, I'm happy to do that. The online credit card payment portal doesn't have an option to leave a tip.

posted by joyceanmachine to Work & Money (23 answers total)

You are doing the right thing, tip your cleaners. Management who tell you not to tip their service people can go to hell. Even if you could leave a tip on the credit card portal, there is no reason to believe that all, most or any of it ends up in the hands of your cleaners.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 6:35 PM on January 15, 2021 [43 favorites]

Do you interact with the cleaner? Can you ask them what they want? Is it an issue with the company not wanting contaminated money (this isn't really an issue.) Or is it that the company doesn't want the cleaner getting extra pay? If it were me, I would ask the cleaner directly, and suggest putting the money in an envelope for it to be "quarantined" or else you could offer to pay via Venmo or Paypal. You could also get a bunch of gift cards and give them one of those instead. I am all for tipping the people who clean my house.
posted by momochan at 6:37 PM on January 15, 2021 [8 favorites]

It is very hard to imagine the rationale for this. I get the idea of wanting to be cashless in, say, a coffee shop for covid reasons. But it's very hard to imagine there is exrtra risk to someone of taking your money, that has been sitting there for a couple of hours, after they have spent a
couple of hours touching everything in your house.
posted by ManInSuit at 6:42 PM on January 15, 2021 [60 favorites]

You could put it in a baggie, and make a show of spraying down the baggie with sanitizer as you hand it over. Or you could ask the cleaner(s) if they have Venmo/PayPal/etc. and do it that way. (My cleaners have transitioned to taking Venmo, which is definitely handy.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:50 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

You could ask the cleaners directly if they have Venmo, but if they don't, or until you do that, I would continue leaving a cash tip.

The management may be using COVID as an excuse, but it sounds like some real bullshit to me.

Cash is not going anywhere anytime soon.
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:59 PM on January 15, 2021 [5 favorites]

If you were the cleaner, would you want the cash tip?
posted by aniola at 7:05 PM on January 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

‘The likelihood of getting COVID-19 from touching money is extremely low.’

Carry on leaving a cash tip. If your cleaners need extra reassurance, they can steam iron the bank notes!
posted by monotreme at 7:07 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

I guarantee you, they want the tip and are not worried about getting sick from cash (because it is very very unlikely).
posted by jeather at 7:38 PM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

You could put the cash in a clean new envelope - wouldn't make any practical difference, but might psychologically be a bit nicer.

If possible I would ask the cleaners though, just because actually using the cash they get might be a little harder than usual because of restrictions in stores.
posted by trig at 8:07 PM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Employees are supposed to report cash tips to their employers. The business owner probably doesn't want to deal with the paperwork or is worried about hassle from the IRS. The lazy way out is to say "no cash tips" as a policy, then there's no tip reporting paperwork and the employer has lower matching payments for FICA (if the employees report tips it makes their taxable income higher which makes the employer contribution larger.) Leave a cash tip.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 8:09 PM on January 15, 2021 [7 favorites]

It can both be true that handling cash is not a significant risk, and also that your cleaners may genuinely have an (unfounded) worry about it. Asking your cleaner if they'd prefer venmo or paypal is a good idea.
posted by kickingtheground at 8:23 PM on January 15, 2021

This is really weird. Find a new cleaner.
posted by geoff. at 9:02 PM on January 15, 2021

if they didn't want the cash they wouldn't take it.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:18 PM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Maybe leave 'em a gift card from Starbucks or Target, instead.
posted by Rash at 9:55 PM on January 15, 2021

I would go so far as to say that your cleaning company is probably lying to you in order to avoid having to pay their employees a higher minimum wage:

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Many states, however, require higher direct wage amounts for tipped employees.

I would call them up and let them know in no uncertain terms that I did not appreciate their attempt to mislead, and I would tell your cleaners what they were trying to do.
posted by jamjam at 9:58 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Can you tip them directly through Venmo?

Just to address the Covid aspect of this: Western countries may be saying that fomite transmission, transmission through touching money etc is low - but there is a reason why many Asian governments have been strongly recommending cash-less transactions, discouraging cash payments (even down to the level of monitoring local street/market vendors) and/or literally cleaning their money regularly through UV disinfection since the pandemic started. These measures have been baked into wider government policies for a number of Asian countries. There is also a lot of research being done in Asia on surface transmission/contamination, relative to Western countries (it seems most Western countries are trying to play catch-up and have their hands full trying to address immediate domestic surges, and thus are (understandably) not as keen to prioritize resources for research in this way).

Digital payment (Venmo, Paypal, mobile number payments etc) would be the most ideal. If that's not possible, and if your cleaners are still willing to accept cash, try to reduce the number of notes you tip in (e.g. one 5 dollar bill instead of five 1 dollar bills), wash the notes* and place the tip in a clean envelope or plastic bag.
Or - maybe a more convenient option - just place all the notes in an envelope, and briefly dip the whole envelope in a shallow tray of alcohol (70% rubbing alcohol works).

*If that is difficult (I think US bills are relatively difficult to wash because they're mostly paper and can tear quite easily), maybe spray or dip in alcohol instead.
posted by aielen at 10:44 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

We don’t use a service but did ask our cleaner the last time she came whether she preferred cash or venmo. This is increasingly normal. (I also use a meat delivery service and their automated delivery system actually texts me to tell me when the driver is close AND ALSO includes the drivers Venmo bc tipping is important but we live in a touchless time).

This is more about the service you use being shitty to their staff than covid safety.

Since we found the woman who (occasionally) cleans our apartment we’ve recommended her to a bunch of folks via our buildings message board. Is there somewhere local you could ask for a referral?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 5:15 AM on January 16, 2021

I leave cash on the counter with a note for my cleaners, and they always take it. It's one of the only things I use cash for these days.
posted by shiny blue object at 6:11 AM on January 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah sounds like BS from management to me. I always leave a cash tip for my cleaners, but put it out in an envelope the night before in a visible spot. I don't use cash much so it's not like the bills are being handled frequently.
posted by photo guy at 6:45 AM on January 16, 2021

Just for a reality check here; the cleaners are cleaning every surface in your home. They are breathing your air. It's hard to imagine how pocketing some cash is going to greatly increase their risk of Covid exposure.

Management wants to skim the tips. Fuck them.
posted by Nelson at 7:04 AM on January 16, 2021 [5 favorites]

In addition to continuing to tip, you could also call management and ask them to rescind their policy or you will write a review that mentions this exploitative policy on Yelp and change providers.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:11 PM on January 16, 2021

You could always leave a visa gift card or something like that. Plastic, one piece, easy to wipe off, spends like cash. Or venmo.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 4:23 PM on January 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Look, I completely agree with the logic that the cleaners are in your home, so cash is hardly their only risk factor for potential exposure to COVID.

However, the fact that your cleaners have been accepting cash tips to date doesn't indicate that they're fine with cash; it only indicates that the choice available to them up to now has been "cash tip or no tip".

Similarly, your cleaning company has a legal and moral responsibility to operate its business in a way which minimises exposure risk to its employees. If they'd written instructions which said "please only tip in cash!" there'd be as much outrage here about the risk they were foisting on their employees as there currently is about there being no tip at all.

Lots of places aren't doing business in cash right now. If it doesn't make sense to permit in-person visits but prevent cash, well, perhaps we can chalk it up to the cleaning company trying their best to be COVID-secure, being uncertain about the best way to do this. After all, they're sending advisory texts for the first time nearly a year after the pandemic started - they don't seem terribly on the ball. They may have borrowed the cash policy from other businesses and not stopped to think through the inner logic of its execution.

I know Metafilter is very outspoken about tipping, and I think some of that is coming through here with the kicking your cleaning company are getting. Regardless of the motivation of your cleaning company, the only way of resolving this is through dialogue with your cleaners themselves. If you see them in person, ask them. If you only leave notes, leave one with this week's cash asking if they'd prefer a different delivery method.
posted by citands at 6:02 AM on January 18, 2021