Starting cleaner salary $93k a year

Starting cleaners are earning $93k a year while more experienced ones are taking home $124k a year as the nation’s labour shortage bites.

Cleaning toilets will now officially earn you more than a degree from a university with domestic workers now earning salaries in excess of $90,000 a year.

A shortage of workers has seen wages skyrocket across a range of previously low-paid jobs, meaning a cleaner working eight hours a day outstrips the salary of engineering and architecture graduates where a starting salary can be as low as $60,000 a year.

Absolute Domestics managing director Joy Vess said they upped their rate to $45 an hour in the past few weeks because they could not attract enough staff.

Working five days a week for eight hours a day, a cleaner with no experience can earn $93,600 a year before tax — with the whopping wage hike helping attract more staff.

“I can see that it is making a difference now… the applicants are just elated,“ she said.

Cleaners wages spiked due to lack of attractive wage in select areas. Picture: Jonathan Ng

But she still could not attract enough staff and has been forced to stop advertising in some areas of Sydney because the staff were simply not there.

“It is a major problem in my business,” she said.

“Since mid 2021 I haven’t been able to get enough cleaners to service the business, in some areas I don’t market at all — Bondi, Manly, I don’t advertise at all because I can’t get cleaners there at all.

“Nine months ago I took the hourly rate to $35 and that didn’t fix it so three weeks ago I took it to $45 an hour.

She however wants the government to allow international students to work more hours and fix the bureaucratic backlogs with processing visa applications.

Other cleaning contract companies offering high wages include Urban Company which used to pay $35 an hour has jobs going for between $40 to $54.99 per hour.

Joy Vess owns Absolute Domestics agency, a cleaning agency claiming they can’t find any cleaners in Bondi and Manly. Picture: Adam Armstrong.

A spokeswoman said that figure could go up to $60 an hour depending on how quickly they clean. A cleaner working full time would earn $124,800 a year.

“We promise our cleaners at least $40 per hour but this goes up to $60 per hour depending on the experience of the cleaner,” she said.

“The $40 per hour is after any commissions and cuts we take. We believe the more experienced (and after assessing their skill set in our onsite training facility) the cleaner then they should be paid more.”

Crystal Car Wash have job ads offreing $30 an hour with an immediate start. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

Window and gutter cleaning company Gutter Boy are offering up to $50 five days a week, which equates to new workers trousering $104,000 a year.

Meanwhile Crystal car wash have job advertisements offering $30 an hour. In a sign of how desperate they are for workers, the job ad simply states “no need to call, just show up at your preferred location and START.”

Leading labour market economist John Mangan said the lack of new immigrants entering the labour market was driving up wages while other people did not want to do cleaning work because of a perceived social stigma.

“People don’t want to be seen as cleaners. ‘What does your son do? Oh he’s a cleaner’. There is a reluctance to enter the market because of that,” he said.

But he warned the big wages would not be around forever.

Cleaner Veruska Benefito works Monday to Friday and earns between $40 to $55 per hour. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“It will be temporary because immigration will pick up again, and these people won’t be as valuable as they previously were.

“The people who hire the cleaners will get jack of the fact you’re paying very large amounts for cleaners.”

Cleaner Veruska Benedito from Bexley in Sydney’s south said she started cleaning two years ago and since then her take home pay had doubled.

“I earn between $40 and $55 an hour depending on the house, I work from Monday to Friday,” she said.

“It means I can save some money, travel and do some more things with my family.”