Are you interested in making extra money cleaning and want to know how much you can get paid?

Or are you thinking of hiring a house cleaner and curious to know what the going rate is? In this article we’ll go over the different levels of compensation you can make working as a house cleaner.

Wages will vary depending on whether you’re working as an employee, sub-contractor or business owner.

Employees make the lowest amount, but benefit from having their employers deduct their taxes for them. Sub-contractors get paid a little more, but have to share profits with the company who hired them, and they are required to carry their own insurance. Business owners who do the cleaning themselves have to oversee all their expenses but they get to keep the most profit.

Let’s take a look at the 5 main methods used to calculate wages for house cleaners

1. Non-experienced employee: $7-$12.50 per hour

If someone doesn’t have any experience cleaning but they land an entry level job as a housekeeper, typically they can expect to start out at minimum wage which can be $7-$12 depending on your state.

Usually the employee will get paid this rate while they are training and gaining experience. Most employers will have a “test” period anywhere between 30-90 days to see how their new employee will do and will keep an eye open for things like consistency, attitude, efficiency and how well you complete each job.

After this test period, the employer will usually increase the hourly wage by 50 cents to a dollar, and may offer extra perks like holiday pay.

Most cleaning companies do not offer health benefits or 401K plans, so if you’re thinking of working for a company and this is important to you, make sure you ask them about this up front.

2. Experienced employees, Cleaning Technician: $10.50-$15.50 per hour

If you have a year or more experience cleaning, you can usually get paid more as a house cleaner.

Most cleaning employers own their own businesses and can feel overwhelmed trying to manage all the cleaning jobs, so if they can find someone who’s both trusted to show up on time and complete their cleaning jobs with excellence, they’ll be more willing to increase your hourly pay.

3. Cleaning Supervisor: $15.50-$20 per hour

Cleaning supervisors (equivalent to a foreman or project manager) have the opportunity to make much more money because they are taking a big chunk of tasks off of their employers schedule.

As a cleaning supervisor, you’ll usually have 1 to 6 employees working under you. You’ll be responsible for making sure they have all the supplies and equipment they need for each job, ensuring the cleaning job is completed in a timely manner while also maintaining quality, and also addressing any customer conflict.

You may find yourself doing some cleaning as well, but it will more than likely be warranty cleaning or acting as a floater in case a cleaning technician calls off.

4. Subcontractor Cleaner: $15-$24.50 per hour

Acting as a subcontractor has its pros and cons for making money. The pros are that in most cases the company hiring you is doing all the marketing, sales and scheduling and basically providing you the opportunities to clean.

However, even though the law forbids companies from making their contractors work certain days and times, most companies will tell you as a subcontractor the days and times their customers want the cleaning, and will require you to accommodate them. If you become too picky about which jobs you choose, there’s a chance the company contracting you will drop your business.

The other downside is that most of the time you’ll be required to carry at a minimum of liability insurance or workers comp. You’ll also be responsible for bringing your own cleaning supplies.

5. Business Owners: $20-$50 per hour

As a business owner, you’ll want to charge more money per hour for your jobs so you can cover not only supplies, but also administrative and marketing expenses. When all the cost of doing business has come out, you can usually make $20-$50 per hour depending on the state you live in.

You can also choose to do house cleaning as a side gig and keep your costs down. This makes it nice if you just need some extra cash on the weekends but don’t want to start a full on business.

How much should you charge for your cleaning services?

If you decide that you want to clean houses on your own, it’s best to start out with lower rates than what bigger cleaning companies and franchises charge.
Bigger cleaning companies in Colorado for example can charge $60-$90 per hour for independent businesses and $100-$120 per hour for franchise businesses. (note, these rates are not pure profit and usually a large amount goes toward business expenses).

Instead of trying to match your competitors hourly wages, I would recommend charging double what your state’s minimum wage currently is.
For example, if your state’s hourly wage is $12 per hour, charge anywhere from $24-$25 per hour. This will keep your prices competitive against larger companies, but will also remove any false perception from your customer that you charge TOO low, and therefore your services must not be top quality.

This also gives you some cash cushion to work with to buy and replenish your cleaning supplies. You’ll want a little extra money to maintain your vacuum, buy more magic erasers, dusters, spray products, etc.

If you decide to make cleaning your full time business and grow, you can always adjust your prices gradually.

Entire Blog Summary:

The best opportunity to make money as a house cleaner is to start out small doing it on the side and charging about double what your state’s minimum wage is.

You could choose to do subcontract work, but you won’t have as much freedom as running your own business.

If you’ve never cleaned before but are interested in pursuing it, you could start out as an entry-level cleaner for a local cleaning company. You won’t get paid as much, but you’ll learn about customer services, processes and techniques for cleaning.

Written by: Isaac Cano
Cleaning business owner of 15 years.
This article is updated every 6 months to stay current with cleaning rates.
Last updated: April, 27th, 2024