House cleaner pay: hourly, per job or commission

The wage benchmark for cleaners

There were 860,670 maids and housekeeping cleaners employed in the US in May 2025, with a median hourly wage of $17.07^[4][1]. Janitors and building cleaners, the occupation closer to commercial cleaning, had a median of $17.71 an hour^[5]. These are the numbers a cleaner sees when they compare your job post with the one from the franchise down the road, so they are the right starting point for any pay plan.

Residential cleaning is also dominated by very small operators. There were 1,095,927 cleaning nonemployer businesses, mostly solo cleaners, against 67,799 employer establishments in 2023^[6]. Every good cleaner on your team has the option to go solo, which is why pay design matters more in cleaning than its wage level suggests.

Three ways cleaning companies pay

Many owners move from hourly to per-house pay once they have reliable estimates of how long each home takes. That only works when the estimate is right. A per-house rate set from a quote that underestimated the size of the home, the pets or the clutter transfers the quoting error to the cleaner's paycheck.

Run the minimum wage check every week

Per-job and commission pay are legal, but the total for the week divided by the hours worked has to clear the minimum wage. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour^[2]; many states and cities are higher, and the highest applicable rate at the work location applies. For per-job workers the federal method is the same one used for piece rates: add all straight-time pay for the week and divide by all hours worked^[7].

1. 01

   Collect hours for every job

   Use clock-in at the first home and clock-out after the last, plus any office time.

2. 02

   Add travel between homes

   Driving from one home to the next during the workday counts as hours worked.

3. 03

   Divide pay by hours

   Example: a cleaner earns $640 for eight homes and works 38 hours including travel, which is about $16.84 an hour.

4. 04

   Compare and top up

   Example: if the local minimum were higher than $16.84, the difference times 38 hours is added to the same paycheck.

5. 05

   Fix the cause

   Look at which homes ran long and adjust the quote, the job type or the rate for that home.

Travel time is paid time

Under federal rules, travel that is part of the day's work, such as going from job site to job site during the workday, must be counted as hours worked^[3]. For a cleaning team doing four to six homes a day, that can be an hour or more. A per-house rate that ignores drive time quietly lowers the effective hourly rate, and it is the first thing a wage claim will look at.

• Route homes by area so drive time stays short; see zone scheduling for cleaning teams.
• Pay drive time hourly on top of per-house pay, or build an average drive allowance into each rate and check it monthly.
• Count time spent picking up supplies or keys from the office during the day.
• Reimburse mileage for personal vehicles according to your written policy.

Overtime on per-house and commission pay

A cleaner who works more than 40 hours in a workweek is owed an extra half of their weekly regular rate for each hour over 40, using the same weekly average described above^[7]. Heavy weeks happen before holidays and during move-out season. Plan for them in the schedule, because paying the premium is cheaper than burning out your best team.

Setting a per-house rate from real data

A per-house rate is only fair if it rests on measured time. Many owners set it from the price list: a standard clean costs the customer a set amount, so the cleaner gets a fixed share. That ignores the fact that two homes at the same price can take very different amounts of time. Build the rate from hours instead, then check it against the price.

1. Record actual start and finish times for every home for at least four weeks, split by job type: recurring standard, first-time deep clean, move-out and post-construction.
2. Note the factors that add time: square footage, bathrooms, pets, clutter level and whether the customer is home.
3. Work out the median hours per job type and the range. A wide range means the quote form is not capturing enough about the home.
4. Set the per-house rate so a cleaner working at the median pace earns at least your target hourly rate, then add an allowance for drive time between homes.
5. Flag any home that runs well over its estimate two visits in a row and requote it with the customer.

First-time deep cleans are where per-house pay most often breaks. Many companies pay deep cleans hourly, then switch the home to the per-house rate once it is on a recurring schedule and its time is known.

Commission pay: protect cleaners from discounts

Commission pay, where cleaners receive a share of the job price, ties pay to revenue. It also ties pay to every discount, coupon and price change the office makes. If a sales promotion takes a large amount off first-time cleans, the cleaners doing those homes take a pay cut for the same work. Decide in writing whether commission is calculated on the list price or the price paid. Most owners who use commission set it on the list price for promotions they choose to run, and on the price paid for discounts the cleaner influenced, such as add-ons they sold. Whatever you choose, run the same minimum wage and overtime checks as for per-house pay, because the method for the week does not change.

Team pay and splits

Two- and three-person teams are common in residential cleaning. If you pay the team one amount per home, write down how it is split and keep separate hours for each person. A lead who trains new cleaners, handles the keys and does the final walk-through deserves a larger share or a fixed lead premium. A new cleaner on the team for training should be paid hourly until they reach the speed and quality the per-house rate assumes. Our comparison of team and solo cleaning models covers when a team makes sense.

Pay that helps retention

Cleaning payroll is lean: janitorial and maid service establishments paid an average of $30,089 per employee in annual payroll in 2023^[8], which reflects many part-time roles. Because the wage gap between companies is often small, cleaners leave over predictability and fairness as much as over the rate. These levers usually matter more than an extra dollar on the base rate.

• Guaranteed minimum hours for core staff, so a cancellation does not wipe out a day's pay.
• A cancellation policy that pays the cleaner something when a customer cancels on the day.
• A quality bonus tied to customer feedback and re-clean rates, paid monthly.
• Clear steps from cleaner to team lead to trainer, each with a written pay change.
• Consistent clients, so cleaners build relationships and know each home.

Decision checklist before you change pay

1. Pull eight weeks of hours and pay by cleaner and job type.
2. Calculate each cleaner's effective hourly rate including drive time.
3. Model the new plan against the same weeks and show each cleaner their before and after.
4. Write the plan, including travel pay, cancellations, re-cleans, overtime and team splits.
5. Confirm your payroll system can compute the weekly regular rate and minimum wage top-ups; compare tools in payroll software for field teams.
6. Review effective hourly pay for every cleaner monthly for the first quarter.