Cleaners Pay the Cost of Living

A new study shows how economic hardships directly impact frontline cleaning crews’ professional and personal well-being nationwide. Find My Local Cleaner, a cleaning-services platform, analyzed federal and local wage rates and housing data across 20 major U.S. cities and found that some staff members must work more than 100 paid hours per week to afford housing in their locale. These results reveal the increasing pressures placed on employees, driving a need for improved compensation offerings that provide economic stability.

Across all measured metropolitan areas, professional cleaning employees pay rent that is over half of their full-time median gross pay. Of the 20 examined, the study identified the top ten cities where cleaning compensation is stretched thinnest. The least affordable city for frontline workers is New York, where the median wage for cleaners is $21.16 an hour, and the average rent is $3,615 per month. This means that cleaning workers in New York are paying, on average, 98.6 percent of their full-time median gross salary to afford housing.

These findings reflect an unstable employment reality. With such a large portion of the average cleaner’s earnings invested in housing alone, more pressure is placed on the employee to continue performing at that level. Ongoing stress can ultimately lead to burnout or cause an individual to find a higher-paying job elsewhere. 

This aligns with current recruitment and retention challenges facing commercial cleaning executives. According to a monthly CleanLink poll, 44 percent of industry respondents identify competitive wage pressures as a primary contributor to staffing shortages. Companies can alleviate the economic strain by strategically budgeting cost-of-living expenses alongside scheduled raises to meet employee needs.

Learn more about the study and its results by clicking here.