It's no secret that the cleaning industry has a high turnover rate. After all, cleaning up after other people is no one's idea of an ideal or attractive job. This is just one reason why residential cleaning business owners find it difficult to find and retain “Star Employees.”  After all, who is going to want to clean bathrooms for only a few measly bucks an hour?

It is crucial for cleaning business owners to compensate their cleaning technicians with a wage that will be inviting and keep them coming back to work every day. Competition for both clients and workers can be fierce and therein lies the dilemma. The more you pay your employees, the more it is going to cut into profits, right? Not necessarily so.

What to charge clients to pay your cleaning technicians an attractive wage

It really comes down to knowing your numbers and how to quantify those numbers to be both highly competitive and profitable as well as keep your employees happy and content.

We all want to pay our cleaning technicians appropriately. After all, most of us know what it's like to struggle to pay the bills. And as hard as our employees work, they deserve a good wage.

In the residential cleaning industry, a good wage for cleaning technicians is considered to be in the $12 - $18 per hour range.  In order to pay employees those rates, what do you need to charge your clients?

Most cleaning companies use 50% as a benchmark for paying loaded payroll (meaning labor plus payroll burden).

Every company's payroll burden is going to be different so for this example we'll use the following rates:

6.2% - FICA (same for all in the U.S.)
1.45% - Medicare (same for all in the U.S.)
.8% - FUTA (same for all in the U.S.)
2% - SUTA (varies by company)
1% - Liability insurance (varies by company, usually based on a percentage per $1000 of payroll)
9.5% - Worker's compensation (varies by company)

20.95% - Total Payroll Burden

Let's say you charge $30 per man hour, and it will take you 3 hours to clean this particular home, so you decided to charge the client $90 per service.

If your loaded payroll is 50%, then it's costing you $45 (90 x .50)

If your labor burden is 20.95%, that equates to $9.43 (45 x .2095)

$45 - $9.43 = $35.57 (this is the amount left to pay your employee)

Since you know it takes 3 hours to clean, your employee will make $11.86 per hour ($35.57 ÷ 3 = $11.86)

As you can see in this scenario, you'll need to charge your client more than $30 per man hour if you want to pay your cleaning technicians a competitive wage.

Using the same calculations above, but charging the client $40 per man hour, or $120 per service, your employees will make $15.81 per hour.

This is a much more attractive wage for residential cleaning technicians. This is where the profit vs. pay comes into play. By paying your cleaning technicians more than just an “average” wage, you should be rewarded with greater effort, productivity and longevity of employment. All big pluses when it comes to running a profitable and successful cleaning business.

If you haven't been able to afford to pay your employees as much as you would like, then it's time to work the numbers by using the calculations above. Remember, every company's labor burden is different so to get a true picture for your company, you must use your numbers.