House cleaner pay rates
/ 8 min read
The wage is not the cost of an hour, and the cost of an hour is not the price of an hour. Every staffing decision in cleaning depends on keeping those three apart.
Before you quote
- Know the local mean, not the national one
- Decide hourly or per-visit before you advertise
- Budget the burden, not just the wage
Before you leave
- Publish the band in the job post
- Review pay at twelve months, before someone asks
- Track turnover — it is the real cost
What the national data says
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wages for the two occupations that cover this work. In 2025, janitors and cleaners (SOC 37-2011) had a mean hourly wage of $18.64 across 2,209,760 jobs; maids and housekeeping cleaners (SOC 37-2012) had a mean of $17.83, or $37,080 a year.
| Occupation | SOC | Mean hourly, 2025 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janitors and cleaners | 37-2011 | $18.64 | Mostly commercial and institutional |
| Maids and housekeeping cleaners | 37-2012 | $17.83 | $37,080 mean annual |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, via the BLS public API, read 2026-09-04
These are means, not medians, and they exclude self-employed cleaners entirely — which in residential work is a large share of the market. Treat them as a floor for a job advert, not as the going rate in your city.
What an hour really costs you
Wage plus payroll taxes, workers' compensation, paid time off, and the supervision and training hours nobody bills. A burden of around a quarter on top of wage is a common working figure, so a $19 cleaner costs about $24 an hour before supplies.
Workers' compensation alone averages $114 a month for cleaning businesses, and it scales with payroll rather than sitting flat.
Insureon, read 2026-09-04
Hourly, per visit, or per job
Hourly is simplest and rewards slowness. Per-visit rewards speed and punishes a bad property. Per-job with a quality check is where most well-run residential businesses end up, because it aligns the cleaner with the client.
Whatever you choose, publish it. A job advert with a number gets applicants who are already working; one without gets applicants who are not.
Retention is cheaper than recruitment
Replacing a residential cleaner costs a fortnight of disruption on every property they touched, plus the client who leaves because the same-cleaner promise broke. That is worth far more than the dollar an hour the raise would have cost.
The three things that keep cleaners, in order: a predictable round, being paid on time, and being told when something goes right. None of them is money.