As if our nation's cleaners didn't have enough to contend with, what with generally earning less money than others do, working unsocial hours, having to deal with other people's mess and often being ignored or disrespected by those they're helping to keep safe and healthy, a new study's found that they're being quoted above-average car insurance premiums! And to make matters worse, women in the profession are paying almost £17 more than men for the same driver profile. Why? It doesn't make any sense to me. Does it you?

Marshall Motor Group, having analysed insurance quotes across 100 occupations using identical driver, vehicle and postcode details, (changing only the job title and gender) discovered that male cleaners were quoted £431.20 a year while female cleaners were quoted £447.82, i.e. £16.62 more, which is a 3.9% difference.
Further, male cleaners were quoted £12.22, or 2.9% more than the average male premium across all jobs analysed, while female cleaners were quoted £11.36, or 2.6% above the female study average.

Cleaning supervisors received the highest quotes among the cleaning-related occupations analysed (£431.47 male / £455.10 female), followed by domestic staff (£430.48 male / £454.08 female), housekeepers (£429.91 male / £453.52 female), window cleaners (£429.91 male / £453.52 female) and janitors (£429.83 male / £453.44 female) when the male and female premiums were averaged. I must say I can understand supervisors being quoted more, since they have what must often be an incredibly stressful role, being tasked with upholding cleaning schedules and standards when having to cover for unexpected staff absences and emergency cleaning requirements beyond their control. If they have more accidents while driving than the rest of us, I'm not at all surprised...

Male cleaners were quoted just 27p less than cleaning supervisors. However, female cleaners were quoted £7.28 less than female cleaning supervisors - which again doesn't make any sense to me. Across the six cleaning-related occupations included in the study, the average quote was £430.47 for men and £452.91 for women. Male cleaners were therefore, 73p above the male cleaning-sector average, while female cleaners were £5.09 below the female cleaning-sector average. Both profiles remained above the overall study averages of £418.98 for men and £436.46 for women.

Since reading the report, I've spent a fair bit of time pondering over why those at the sharp end of our industry are being forced to pay more for their insurance. My only conclusion is that, thanks to the unsocial hours so many of them have to work, they're driving to and from work when the roads are emptier. In my view they're less likely to be involved in a collision as there are fewer drivers about. However, emptier roads allow drivers to travel faster - potentially exceeding speeding limits. And then of course there are the dreadful potholes to consider, which are far harder to see in poor light. I wonder...

The full analysis is at https://www.marshall.co.uk/guides/insights/job-title-car-insurance/