Pay Hike

My Hispanic housekeeper told me the bad news: instead of paying her $70 every two weeks for 2 hours of housekeeping, she's raising her fee to $100 for the same services. I gasped and said, "That's $50 an hour."

Her reply: "I work so hard."

My response: "I earned $50 an hour as an adjunct faculty member at the community college -- with both a bachelor's and a master's degrees."

To which she again replied, "But I work so hard. The house is so dirty."

Well, that sealed the deal! Didn't know I was living in such filth, doing the cleaning myself between times for the housekeeper. I vacuum, dust, clean the kitchen every single day, and clean the bathrooms once a week. Y even uses the rug shampooer and cleans the livingroom carpet about every two weeks to keep the dog hair and odors at bay. May not be the best housekeeping in the world, but the house can be opened to guests at any time without my feeling embarrassed or ashamed of the way it looks.

I talked to Y, explained the situation, and told him he's going to have to work with me one day a week to clean the house ourselves because there is no way I'm going to pay $200 a month to have someone else clean it. We'll set the saved money aside and treat ourselves to a nice dinner and a movie once a month instead.

I hope all her other clients, who are also being told of the rate increase, do likewise. She won't have to work so hard any longer because ... she isn't going to have any clients!

Rate hike? Take a hike!