Why is it hard to find cleaning employees?
Cleaning employees are hard to find because the job pays close to what retail, warehouses and fast food pay, the hours are often early, late or split, and the work is physical. You are not short of people; you are short of people who will take your offer over the one down the street.
The numbers show the scale of the churn. O*NET’s profile for janitors and cleaners (occupation 37-2011) lists about 2,432,600 people employed in 2025, projected growth of only 1% to 2% through 2035, and about 321,800 projected job openings a year over the same period. Growth that slow with openings that large means nearly every opening is a replacement: someone left and the employer is hiring again. The same page puts the national median wage at $17.71 an hour, or $36,840 a year, and lets you pick your state for local figures.
Three things follow from that:
- Retention is a hiring strategy. Every cleaner who stays is one you do not have to find. A company that loses half its team each year is hiring all the time.
- Pay has to be visible and competitive. Applicants compare your ad with the warehouse ad on the same page, and they compare hourly rate first.
- Speed wins. A good applicant has three other options this week. The company that calls first usually gets them.
This guide covers when to hire, what to offer, where to look and how to run the pipeline. The interview, trial clean, background check and paperwork are covered step by step in hiring cleaners for your cleaning business, so they are not repeated here.
When to hire employees for cleaning: the signals and the math
Hire when the hours you have booked for the next month reach about 85% of the hours your current team (including you) can actually work, because hiring takes three to four weeks and the last 15% of capacity is eaten by sick days, long jobs and drive time. Waiting until you are turning away recurring clients means you hire in a panic and train while exhausted.
A capacity check you can do in ten minutes (hypothetical numbers)
- Count the cleaning hours booked next month: say 290 hours of recurring visits plus about 40 hours of one-time jobs you usually get. Total: 330.
- Count the hours your team can clean: two cleaners at 32 hours a week and you at 20 hours, for about 4.3 weeks. That is (32 + 32 + 20) × 4.3 ≈ 361 hours.
- Divide: 330 ÷ 361 = 91%. You are past 85%, so you should already be interviewing.
Once a new hire is working, your capacity rises to about 500 hours a month and your booked share drops to around 66%. That gap is what you fill with marketing over the next two months, and it is why the hiring decision and the marketing push should be planned together.
Other signals that say “now”
- You, the owner, are cleaning more than 25 hours a week and doing quotes, invoices and scheduling at night.
- Your next opening for a new recurring client is more than two weeks out.
- One cleaner leaving would force you to cancel visits. A team of two has no slack; a team of three does.
- You want to sell a service (deep cleans, move-outs, offices at night) that needs a second pair of hands.
Signals that say “not yet”
- You are busy this month because of a one-off (a spring rush, a single large job), and next month’s bookings are back to normal.
- You cannot name 25 to 30 hours a week of work the new person would do from day one. Part-time hires with 10 unpredictable hours rarely stay.
- Your prices do not cover a $20-plus loaded hourly cost with margin left over. Fix pricing first; see the cleaning business profit calculator.
How much should you offer to attract cleaners?
Offer at or slightly above the median wage for janitors and cleaners in your state, pay for drive time between homes, and present the offer as weekly earnings with a schedule, not as a bare hourly number. The cleaner comparing you with a warehouse job is comparing take-home for the week.
Start from the O*NET wage data: $17.71 an hour is the national median for 2025, and the state selector on the same page shows your local figure, which can be several dollars higher in coastal metros and lower in rural areas. Then look at what the three largest employers near you advertise for entry-level work and make sure your number is not below theirs.
Count the hours the law counts
Two federal rules shape your offer. Under 29 CFR 785.38, time spent traveling from job site to job site during the workday is hours worked, so drive time between homes is paid time, and short rest breaks of 5 to about 20 minutes are paid too (785.18). Under 29 CFR part 778, hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at one and a half times the regular rate. An offer that quietly skips drive time is both a legal problem and a reason the cleaner leaves when she finds out.
Turn the hourly rate into an offer (hypothetical numbers)
| Offer | How it reads to an applicant | Weekly gross |
|---|---|---|
| “$18/hour, hours vary” | Unpredictable income, probably part-time | Unknown |
| “$18/hour, 32 to 36 hours a week, Monday to Friday 8 am to 3:30 pm, paid drive time” | A real job with school-friendly hours | $576 to $648 |
| “$18/hour plus $1/hour after 90 days, 100% of tips, paid drive time, $150 referral bonus” | A job that gets better if you stay | $576 to $648, rising to $608 to $684 |
The third line costs you about $35 more a week per cleaner than the first, and it is the one that gets replies. Add what you can afford that the warehouse cannot offer: daytime hours, no weekends, the same homes every week, a say in the schedule. For what owners and cleaners actually earn by region, see how much house cleaners make.
Where to find cleaners to hire, in the order to try them
Where to find cleaners to hire, ranked by how good the people tend to be: your own cleaners’ friends and family, people who already clean for someone else part-time, local Facebook and community groups, Indeed and similar job boards, and finally staffing agencies. Run the first three at the same time; add the job board in week one if the referrals are slow.
1. A referral program your cleaners actually use
- Pay a bonus you choose (a starting point we suggest is $100 to $300) in two halves: half when the referred hire finishes 30 days, half at 90.
- Announce it in the group chat every time you open a role, with the pay and schedule, so cleaners can forward it as is.
- Ask directly: “Who do you know who is reliable and wants daytime hours?” People rarely volunteer names without being asked.
2. People already cleaning part-time
Hotel housekeepers, school custodians on summer break, hospital environmental services staff and solo house cleaners who want steady hours without running a business are all trained already. A “we are hiring, daytime hours” line on your vehicle, invoices and website reaches them; so does a short note in community groups aimed at the neighborhoods where your clients live.
3. Local groups and schools
Neighborhood and parent Facebook groups, church bulletins, community colleges and adult ESL programs produce fewer applicants than a job board but steadier ones. Post in the language your team speaks; a Spanish or Portuguese post reaches people an English post does not.
4. Job boards
Job boards give you volume. The trade-off is that many applicants apply to every posting on the page, so screen fast and expect to call 10 to get 4 conversations. Keep the application to a phone number and three questions. Our free house cleaner job description generator writes the long posting and a short social version from your pay, hours and duties.
5. Staffing agencies
Agencies charge a markup on the hourly wage or a placement fee; ask for both numbers in writing before you agree. They make sense for a sudden commercial contract that starts in two weeks, less so for your core residential team, because the people they send were not recruited for your schedule or your clients.
How to hire employees for a janitorial business
Hiring employees for a janitorial business is a different problem from hiring house cleaners: the shifts are mostly evenings and nights, many are part-time (three to four hours per building), and your clients often require background checks and a bond before anyone sets foot in the building. Recruit for the schedule first.
Who takes night and part-time shifts
- People with a daytime job who want 15 to 20 extra hours a week. Say “second-income friendly” in the ad.
- Students and parents who need evening hours while someone else is home.
- Retirees and semi-retired workers who want a few predictable evenings.
- Couples or friends who want to work the same building together, which also solves the working-alone problem.
Offer what fits the shift
- Fixed buildings and fixed nights: “Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 pm to 10 pm at one office park.” Rotating routes lose part-timers.
- Bundle buildings so a shift is worth the drive: two nearby buildings for a four-hour block, not one building for 90 minutes.
- A small shift differential for nights if your contract prices allow it, and paid travel between buildings on the same shift.
What commercial clients will require
Read your contract before you post the ad. Many commercial clients require criminal background checks, some require drug screening, and many require that the cleaning company carries a bond covering employee theft. The checks need written consent, and screening rules differ by state; the hiring guide covers the process. Our janitorial bond guide explains what the bond covers and what it costs, and how to get commercial cleaning contracts covers what buyers ask for.
Pair before you promote
Put every new janitorial hire with a lead for the first two weeks, on the lead’s buildings, before giving them a building of their own. Unsupervised night work is where quality drops and keys go missing. When you have six or more cleaners across several buildings, a working supervisor who inspects weekly pays for themselves in contracts you do not lose.
Which job ads get replies from cleaners?
Ads that get replies from cleaners put the pay and the schedule in the first line, describe the work honestly, and make applying a 30-second task. Everything else in the ad is secondary. Below are three versions of the same opening for different places.
Short post (Facebook groups, Nextdoor, your own page)
Hiring: house cleaner, $18 to $20/hour plus tips, 32 to 36 hours a week, Monday to Friday days, no weekends. Paid drive time, same homes every week, small friendly team in [neighborhood]. Need a car and a phone. Text “CLEAN” to 555-0100 and we will call you today.
Job board title and first lines
House Cleaner, $18 to $20/hr, Mon to Fri days, no weekends
We are a 5-person residential cleaning company in [city] adding one full-time cleaner. Pay is $18 to $20 an hour depending on experience, plus 100% of tips and paid drive time between homes. Hours are 8 am to 3:30 pm, Monday to Friday, 32 to 36 hours a week. You will clean two to three homes a day with a partner, following a checklist. Must have a reliable car, a smartphone and the legal right to work in the US. Apply with your name, phone number and the days you can start.
Night janitorial version
Evening Office Cleaner (part-time), $17/hr, Mon/Wed/Fri 6 to 10 pm
Clean one office park in [area] three evenings a week, 12 hours total, with one other cleaner. Vacuum, trash, restrooms, kitchens. Great second income. Background check required (we pay for it). Text “NIGHTS” to 555-0100.
Four rules
- Numbers, not adjectives. “$18/hr, 34 hrs/week” beats “competitive pay, great hours.” In our experience, ads without pay get fewer and weaker applicants.
- Say the hard parts. Stairs, lifting, pets, driving. The people who apply anyway stay longer.
- Make the next step tiny. A text keyword or a three-field form. Long applications filter out exactly the people who already have a job.
- Keep it neutral. The EEOC says a job ad cannot show a preference for, or discourage, applicants based on a protected trait, so no “young,” “energetic,” “ladies” or “native English speaker.” Say what the job needs: lifting 25 lb, reading a checklist in English or Spanish.
How many applicants do you need for one hire?
Plan on roughly 30 applicants for one hire who is still with you after 90 days. The exact numbers vary by city and season, but the shape of the funnel is the same everywhere, and the biggest leak is always the same: slow replies.
A realistic funnel (hypothetical numbers)
| Stage | People | What loses them |
|---|---|---|
| Applied | 30 | Nothing yet |
| Answered your call or text | 12 | You called two days later; they took another job |
| Passed a 10-minute phone screen | 6 | No car, wrong hours, pay expectations far apart |
| Showed up to the interview | 4 | No reminder the day before |
| Did a paid trial shift | 2 | You did not like what you saw, or they did not like the work |
| Hired and still there at 90 days | 1 | Pay, schedule, a bad first week |
Fixing the leaks
- Reply the same day. Set a rule: every applicant gets a text within two hours during working hours. “Hi Ana, thanks for applying. Can you talk for 10 minutes today at 1 pm or 4 pm?”
- Screen by phone before you spend an hour in person. The hiring guide has the phone-screen questions.
- Remind the day before. In our experience, interview no-shows drop sharply with one text at 5 pm the day before.
- Pay for the trial. A paid three-hour trial with a lead cleaner tells you more than any interview, and unpaid “tryouts” are a wage violation.
- Keep the runners-up. The second-best candidate is next month’s hire. Text them when a slot opens.
Track the funnel in a simple sheet: source, date applied, date you replied, each stage, outcome. After two hiring rounds you will know which source sends people who stay, and that is where next round’s effort goes.
How do you keep the cleaners you find?
You keep cleaners with a predictable schedule, pay that rises on a stated timeline, a decent first two weeks, and a way to raise problems before they quit. None of those costs much, and together they are the difference between hiring once a year and hiring every month.
- Publish the schedule a week ahead. Cleaners with kids, a second job or a shared car plan around it. In our experience, last-minute changes are one of the most common reasons people give for leaving.
- Put raises on a calendar. “$1 at 90 days, reviewed every 12 months” is an ad line and a retention tool. Keep it.
- Train in pairs for two weeks. A first week alone in a stranger’s home is how new cleaners decide the job is not for them.
- Fix the bad jobs. If three cleaners say a route is impossible in the time allowed, the problem is the route. Reprice it or drop it.
- Check in at 2, 6 and 12 weeks. Ten minutes each: what is harder than expected, what do you need, is the schedule working.
Scheduling software helps with the first point more than any other. In Broombook (booking, scheduling and reminders for recurring service businesses) each cleaner sees her own visits for the week on her phone, with addresses and notes, and gets a reminder before each one, so “I didn’t know I had that job” stops being a reason for a no-show. See cleaning scheduling software for how that fits a small team; if you are still on a shared calendar and a group chat, a printed weekly schedule handed out on Friday does most of the same work.