Infographic: Benchmarking Your Pay Rates

According to the 2013 US Occupational Employment Statistics Survey, 2.5% of the total number of employed in the US are cleaning someone’s home, office or commercial space. And that makes janitors, maids and housekeeping staff the third largest group of workers in the US.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the raw data for answering many of the most commonly asked questions in our industry related to having employees or contracted staff: how much should I pay my cleaning technicians?
A look back at the past decade of data shows that the cleaning industry has nearly grown back to its pre-2008 numbers in terms of technicians employed in the industry, but at higher cost to businesses as minimum wage and national mean wages have increased.

While the number of supervisors and commercial technicians has not fully recovered, the number of residential cleaning technicians has increased year-over-year, indicating not just a return to pre-recession demand but an increase.

The annual earnings of cleaning professionals have increased by an average $5073, with supervisors seeing the largest increase and residential cleaning technicians the smallest; the hourly rates reflect a similar trend.

Even 10 years ago, the mean hourly rate was at least $1.25 above the current national minimum wage, and today’s mean hourly rate is $3.39 above minimum wage.

The BLS also provides Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates by state to better inform your decisions based on local norms.