Cleaning Services Award Pay Rates: What They Mean for Your Cleaning Quote

Rates checked against the Cleaning Services Award 2020 as consolidated to 1 July 2026. Last reviewed November 2026.

From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, the Cleaning Services Award 2020 sets a minimum adult rate of $27.08 an hour for a full-time Level 1 cleaner, with higher rates for casuals, part-timers, and early, late, weekend and public holiday shifts. Those wages are the floor under every honest cleaning quote.

This guide is for the people who buy commercial cleaning: facility, office, strata and practice managers, and procurement teams. It explains what the award requires contractors to pay, why after-hours and weekend cleaning costs more, and how to check whether a quote can cover it. If one quote comes in well under the rest, the gap usually comes from fewer hours on site, less supervision, or wages below what the law requires. Only the first of those is your choice.

The short answer

• Most contract cleaners in Australia are covered by the Cleaning Services Award 2020 [MA000022].
• Level 1 is $27.08 an hour from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Casuals get a 25% loading and part-timers a 15% allowance on top.
• Shifts that start before 6.00 am or finish after 6.00 pm, weekend work and public holidays attract penalty rates of up to 275% for casuals.
• Rates change every year, usually from 1 July. Always check the current Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide before relying on any figure, including ours.
• A sustainable quote has to cover those wages plus superannuation, leave, insurance, supervision, equipment and consumables. If the numbers can’t add up, ask why.

What is the Cleaning Services Award 2020?

The Cleaning Services Award 2020 is the modern award that sets minimum pay and conditions for employees of businesses in the contract cleaning services industry throughout Australia. Under clause 4, that industry includes cleaning (including event cleaning), hygiene and pollution control, trolley collection (with some exceptions) and incidental minor property maintenance.

So if you hire a cleaning company, the people it sends to your site are usually covered by this award. If the contractor says a different instrument applies, such as an enterprise agreement, ask which one.

The award sets:

• minimum hourly and weekly rates for three classification levels
• casual loading and a part-time allowance
• penalty rates for early, late, weekend and public holiday shifts
• overtime rates
• minimum shift lengths for part-time and casual staff
• allowances, such as for toilet cleaning, broken shifts and leading hands.

Cleaning award rates from 1 July 2026

The Fair Work Commission’s 2026 Annual Wage Review increased modern award minimum wages from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. The increase was 4.75%, as reported in a Clayton Utz summary of the decision. That matches the award itself: the Level 1 hourly rate rose from $25.85 to $27.08.

These are the minimum adult rates in clause 15.1 of the award, as consolidated to 1 July 2026:

Source: Cleaning Services Award 2020, clause 15.1, Fair Work Commission, effective first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. These rates will change again from July 2027.

What the levels mean

Schedule A of the award describes each level. In short:

• Level 1 covers general cleaning tasks such as sweeping, mopping, spot cleaning, toilet cleaning and rubbish collection, under routine supervision.
• Level 2 includes extra tasks such as carpet cleaning, ride-on machinery, pressure washers, exterior window cleaning from elevated devices and non-trade routine maintenance. It also covers the role of a leading hand, who receives a leading hand allowance.
• Level 3 coordinates Level 1 and 2 staff and can act as a building supervisor, dealing with tenants or owners and handling routine health and safety matters.

For a buyer, the point is simple: if your scope includes carpet extraction, machine scrubbing or a supervisor on site, those hours should be priced at Level 2 or 3, not Level 1.

Casual and part-time cleaners cost more per hour

Two rules surprise many buyers:

• Casual loading: casual employees receive 25% on top of the minimum hourly rate (clause 11.2).
• Part-time allowance: part-time employees under this award receive an allowance of 15% on top of the minimum hourly rate for each ordinary hour (clause 10.2).

Calculated from the Level 1 rate, that’s about $33.85 an hour for a casual and $31.14 for a part-timer, before any penalty rates.

Penalty rates: why timing changes the price

Most commercial cleaning happens outside business hours, which is when the award’s penalty rates apply. Clause 20.2 sets them as a percentage of the minimum hourly rate:

Source: Cleaning Services Award 2020, clause 20.2, Table 7, consolidated to 1 July 2026.

What that looks like in dollars (Level 1 casual)

We’ve applied the award percentages to the 1 July 2026 Level 1 rate of $27.08. These are our calculations. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s pay guide is the official reference.

A Sunday clean costs a contractor about 60% more in wages per hour than a weekday evening clean. That’s why moving a weekly deep clean from Sunday to a weeknight, or some tasks to daytime, can change a quote, and why a quote that charges the same for every day of the week deserves a question.

Overtime

Overtime is separate from penalty rates. Under clause 19, overtime from Monday to Saturday is paid at 150% for the first two hours and 200% after that (175% and 225% for casuals). Sunday overtime is 200% (225% for casuals) and public holiday overtime is 250% (275% for casuals).

Minimum shift lengths and allowances

Minimum shifts are set by site size

Part-time and casual cleaners must be rostered for a minimum period, and paid for it even if they finish early (clause 13.5). The minimum depends on the size of the area being cleaned. It ranges from 1 hour for a small stand-alone location of 300 square metres or less, through 2 and 3 hours, to 4 hours for areas of 5,000 square metres or more.

This matters for small sites. If your office needs 45 minutes of cleaning, the contractor may still have to pay a part-time or casual cleaner for the minimum shift. Ask how your contractor rosters small sites, rather than assuming the price can shrink in line with the minutes.

Allowances that can apply

From 1 July 2026, the award’s allowances include (clause 17):

• Toilet cleaning: $3.69 per shift or $18.17 per week, where it applies
• Broken shift: $4.71 for the day, up to $23.56 a week
• Leading hand: $61.73 a week for up to 10 employees, $79.43 for 11–20 and $97.13 for more than 20.

There are also allowances for first aid, meals, refuse collection, vehicle use and uniforms. Check the award or pay guide for the full list and current amounts.

Wages are only part of the cost

The award sets the minimum wage. A cleaning company’s cost to deliver your service also includes:

• Superannuation: the super guarantee rate is 12% for 2025–26 and 2026–27 (ATO).
• Leave: annual leave, personal leave and public holidays for permanent staff, plus cover for absent cleaners.
• Workers compensation and public liability insurance.
• Payroll tax, where it applies.
• Supervision and quality checks: someone has to inspect the work, train new cleaners and respond to issues.
• Equipment, chemicals and consumables.
• Travel between sites, administration and a margin.

We don’t publish a typical “on-cost” percentage, because it varies widely by business and site. The practical point for a buyer is that the wage rate in the award is the floor, not the price.

A simple way to sense-check a quote

Take a site cleaned by one casual Level 1 cleaner for 3 hours on five weeknights, finishing after 6.00 pm. That’s 15 hours a week.

• Minimum wages alone: 15 hours × $37.91 = about $569 a week, before super, insurance, supervision, equipment, consumables or margin.

If a quote for that scope is close to, or below, the bare wage figure, it’s very hard to see how award wages are being paid. The contractor may plan fewer hours than you think, or something else is giving. Either way, ask.

This is an illustration using the 1 July 2026 minimums, not a price. For what else drives the cost of a clean, see what office cleaning costs and why and our guide to commercial cleaning costs in Australia.

Why underpayment in your supply chain is your problem too

Cleaning has a long record of underpayment, particularly where work is subcontracted down several levels. A Fair Work Ombudsman inquiry into cleaners in Tasmanian supermarkets found that multiple levels of subcontracting “can create conditions which allow non-compliance to occur”.

In a compliance activity on Victorian government school cleaning, the FWO found that all 11 cleaning companies investigated were non-compliant in some way. School staff were unaware of their responsibility to make sure cleaners were paid correctly, and had a limited understanding of accessorial liability. The report points to the Cleaning Accountability Framework’s principle that all participants, including tenants, facility managers, property managers and owners, have a role to play in lifting standards.

Beyond the legal risk, an underpaid workforce tends to mean high turnover, rushed work and a different cleaner every few weeks, which is exactly what you’re paying to avoid.

What a sustainable cleaning quote should show

When you compare quotes, ask each contractor for:

1. Labour hours per week for your site, and how many cleaners.
2. When the work happens (days and start/finish times), since that sets the penalty rate.
3. Who employs the cleaners, and whether any of the work is subcontracted. If it is, to whom, and how the contractor checks their pay compliance.
4. The industrial instrument that applies: the Cleaning Services Award 2020 or a named enterprise agreement.
5. Supervision: who supervises your site, at what classification, and how often they visit.
6. What’s included: consumables, periodic work and equipment.
7. How the price changes each year, and whether it’s linked to award increases from 1 July. A fair contract explains how increases are passed on, with notice.

You can also check whether a contractor holds prequalification with the Cleaning Accountability Framework, an industry program focused on fair labour practices. It isn’t mandatory, so treat it as one piece of evidence, not a requirement.

Red flags

• A price far below the others with no labour hours shown.
• The same hourly rate for weekday, weekend and public holiday cleaning.
• “Our cleaners are contractors” (ask whether they are genuinely independent businesses) or the contractor can’t say who employs them.
• No allowance for supervision or relief cover.
• A contract that locks the price for years with no mention of award increases. That can sound good, but it usually means the cost gets recovered somewhere else.

For a full method for comparing contractors, see our guide on how to choose a commercial cleaning company.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a cleaner per hour in Australia?

It depends on whether you mean the cleaner’s wage or a cleaning company’s charge-out rate. The award minimum from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026 is $27.08 an hour for a full-time Level 1 cleaner, or about $33.85 for a casual, before any penalty rates. A contractor’s hourly charge has to be higher, because it also covers super, leave, insurance, supervision, equipment and margin.

How much do school cleaners get paid in Australia?

Cleaners employed by a cleaning company to clean a school are generally covered by the Cleaning Services Award 2020, so the same minimum rates and penalties apply. Cleaners employed directly by a school or education department may be covered by a different award or agreement, so check with the employer.

When do cleaning award rates change?

The Fair Work Commission reviews award minimum wages each financial year in the Annual Wage Review. Increases usually take effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July, and some allowances change at the same time.

Do cleaners get paid for travel between sites?

Yes, when the employer requires it. Under clause 17.12 of the award, an employee who has to travel from one workplace to another is paid for the travel time as if they were working, and the employer pays the fares. On multi-site contracts, that travel is a real cost the contractor has to build into the price.

Talking to B&K Services about a quote

If you’re checking whether quotes allow for award wages, start from a scope everyone prices the same way. We offer a free site walk-through, then agree the scope, frequency, timing and responsibilities in writing before service starts (how we work). Our teams complete WHS induction, safe chemical handling training and site-specific risk assessments, and scheduled quality checks are part of the service.

We work across Sydney, Wollongong and Nowra. Request a free quote or call 1300 136 954, or read more about our commercial cleaning in Sydney.

This article is general information, not legal, payroll or tax advice. Award rates, allowances and the super guarantee change; check the current Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide and the ATO, or get advice, before relying on any figure.