How Much Does an Undeclared Cleaner Cost for 2 Hours a Week?

It is one of the questions we hear most often on the phone: “how much does an undeclared cleaner cost for two hours a week?”. The honest answer is that across the Paris region the going rate today sits between €15 and €25 per hour in cash, heavily concentrated between €17 and €20. For two hours a week, that means €130 to €217 per month, most often around €150 to €175.

But that figure means very little until it is compared against the right benchmark. Most people who call us compare €18/hour in cash with a listed rate of €31.90 including VAT, and reasonably conclude they are saving €13 an hour. That is wrong: they are comparing a net price with a price before the tax credit. In this article we lay out the full calculation, without rounding in our own favour, and we detail what the cash rate never covers.

1. What an undeclared cleaner really costs in 2026

These figures do not come from a national survey: they are the amounts prospective clients quote us spontaneously when comparing our rates with what they were paying before. Across Paris, Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines, the range is remarkably stable from one town to the next.

The range observed across the Paris region

Three price levels come up constantly, and they reflect the length of the relationship and local supply and demand far more than the quality of the work:

• €15/hour — the bottom of the market. Often someone just starting out, or a relationship begun years ago and never revised.
• €17 to €20/hour — by far the most common band. This is the default rate in residential areas of Paris and the inner suburbs.
• €22 to €25/hour — experienced, highly recommended cleaners, or those turning work away for lack of availability. These rates appear where demand far outstrips supply.

Why is the range so wide?

An hourly cleaning rate, declared or not, depends far less on the number of hours than on the nature of the tasks and the level of soiling. Two homes of identical size can require twice the actual working time. The main factors:

• What the job includes: routine upkeep (floors, bathrooms, kitchen, dusting) is nothing like a role that also covers ironing, windows, ovens or the inside of cupboards.
• Level of soiling: pets, young children, frequency of visits. A home cleaned weekly takes half the time of one cleaned monthly.
• Layout: upper floors without a lift, delicate surfaces (oiled parquet, marble, stainless steel), high ceilings.
• Location: in central Paris, travel time is effectively priced in. In Yvelines, distances between homes also push the rate up.

The headline hourly rate is not the full cost

A cash rate is a bare service price. It covers neither products nor equipment, which the household always supplies: vacuum cleaner, mop, microfibre cloths, cleaning products. In practice, budget €10 to €20 per month in consumables for weekly upkeep — the equivalent of an extra hour of work across the year. Nor does it cover weeks of absence, during which the home is simply not cleaned.

2. The exact calculation for 2 hours a week

This is where most comparisons go wrong. Not on the hourly rate, but on two methodological errors: the number of hours actually worked in a month, and forgetting the tax credit on the declared side.

Mistake 1: two hours a week is not eight hours a month

A year has 52 weeks, not 48. Two hours a week therefore comes to 104 hours a year, or 8.66 hours per month on average, not 8. Across the year that eight-hour gap already represents €120 to €200 depending on the rate. It is the first reason household budgets worked out in one's head are almost always underestimated.

The real annual cost of undeclared work

On a basis of 104 hours a year, here is what an undeclared cleaner two hours a week actually represents:

• At €15/hour: €130 per month, or €1,560 per year.
• At €18/hour (the most common rate): €156 per month, or €1,872 per year.
• At €20/hour: €173 per month, or €2,080 per year.
• At €25/hour: €217 per month, or €2,600 per year.

The annual cost of a declared service

Our 2026 rates for private households start at €26 excluding VAT per hour for a regular service, that is €31.90 including VAT, and vary according to the tasks requested and the level of soiling. A one-off service is billed at €34.90 including VAT. Here is how that works out for two hours a week, before and after the immediate tax credit:

• Monthly invoice: 8.66 h × €31.90 = around €276.
• After the immediate 50% tax credit: around €138 actually debited, an effective rate of €15.95/hour.
• Over a year: €3,318 invoiced, €1,659 actually paid.

3. The immediate tax credit, explained simply

This is the mechanism that changes the whole calculation, and also the one households understand least well. Many still believe they must pay in full and wait a year to be reimbursed. That is no longer the case.

How it actually works

Home cleaning services provided by a licensed operator qualify for a 50% tax credit on the amounts spent. Under the immediate advance scheme run by Urssaf, that 50% is no longer paid the following year: it is deducted at the point of payment. You receive an invoice for €276, and only €138 is debited from your account. There is no cash-flow advance to make.

What we set up for our private clients

Activating the immediate advance requires registration with Urssaf, which we handle with you. Once the file is in place, everything runs automatically:

• Clear monthly invoicing, itemising the hours actually worked.
• Immediate advance activated for eligible clients: 50% deducted at source.
• Payment by direct debit, with no cash handling.
• Annual tax certificate, useful for audits, estate matters or benefit applications.

Points to watch

The personal services tax credit applies within an annual expenditure ceiling of €12,000, raised depending on household composition. For two hours a week you are nowhere near it: €3,318 of annual spend is less than a third of the ceiling. One important and often missed point: this is a tax credit, not a tax reduction. You benefit even if you pay no income tax — in that case the amount is paid to you. Pre-financed CESU vouchers are also accepted where compatible with your file.

4. What undeclared work costs when things go wrong

As long as nothing happens, undeclared work functions. The problem is that it has no capacity to absorb an incident. And over a relationship lasting three, five or ten years, the odds of an incident are not negligible. Here are the three scenarios we see most often among new clients.

The sudden stop, by far the most common case

Contrary to what people assume, the trigger for switching to a declared service is rarely an inspection. It is almost always a break in service: the cleaner leaves without notice, falls ill for several weeks, moves away, retires, or a payment dispute ends the arrangement. A couple in Boulogne-Billancourt contacted us after four years at €18/hour, three hours a week: their cleaner left overnight and they went three weeks without a solution, right at the start of the school year. Once calculated, switching to a declared service cost them less than €20 more per month. They chose continuity.

An accident in the home

This is the financially heaviest scenario. A fall from a step stool while cleaning the top of a cupboard, a slip on a wet floor, a cut: in a declared arrangement this falls under workplace accident cover and professional liability insurance. Without a declaration, cover becomes far more complicated, and the household's liability as a de facto employer may be engaged. We are aware of one such case whose administrative and financial consequences ran on for months.

Disputes and reclassification

If a disagreement reaches the employment tribunal, an undeclared working relationship can be reclassified as an employment contract. Where concealed employment is established, French labour law provides for a lump-sum indemnity equal to six months' salary (article L.8223-1), on top of possible back pay, holiday pay and an Urssaf reassessment with penalties. Over a relationship of several years, those amounts far exceed the savings made.

5. The invisible cost for the cleaner

Several of our staff worked exclusively undeclared before joining us. What they describe is remarkably consistent from one person to the next, and rarely covered in articles on the subject. In the moment, cash looks better. The difficulties come later:

• No payslip: impossible to put together a rental application, even with steady, sufficient income.
• No access to credit: without proof of income, a mortgage or car loan is out of reach.
• Little or no pension accrual: uncontributed quarters cannot be recovered. The impact shows up decades later.
• No sick pay: three weeks off work means three weeks without income.
• No unemployment cover: the end of an assignment entitles them to nothing.

This matters to the household too, for a very practical reason: an undeclared cleaner often ends up looking for declared work precisely because of these issues. It is one of the most common causes of the sudden departures described above. The stability of your service depends directly on the stability of the situation of the person working in your home.

6. Full comparison table

Summary of the figures for a two-hour weekly service, based on rates observed across the Paris region in 2026.