How Much Should I Charge for Office Cleaning?
Setting the right price for office cleaning is one of the most consequential decisions a commercial cleaning contractor makes — price too low and the program is unprofitable from day one, price too high without substantiating the value and you lose the quote. This guide covers the Melbourne market rate ranges, the correct method for building up a price from your actual cost base, the Award floor that constrains how low you can legitimately go, and the pricing mistakes that cause most cleaning businesses to work hard for poor returns.
Melbourne Market Rates for Office Cleaning
The following per-visit price ranges reflect professional all-inclusive commercial office cleaning in metropolitan Melbourne as of 2026. These are prices charged to the client covering labour, products, equipment, and the contractor's overhead and margin. They are not the labour cost — they are the charge-out price.
| Office Size | Daily Program (per visit) | 3x Weekly (per visit) | Weekly (per visit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 50 sqm | $35–$45 | $40–$52 | $60–$80 |
| 50–100 sqm | $45–$55 | $52–$68 | $75–$100 |
| 100–200 sqm | $55–$90 | $65–$105 | $90–$145 |
| 200–300 sqm | $85–$115 | $100–$135 | $135–$190 |
| 300–500 sqm | $110–$175 | $125–$200 | $165–$265 |
| 500–800 sqm | $160–$260 | $185–$300 | $240–$380 |
Per-visit prices for weekly programs are typically higher per visit than daily programs because the accumulated soiling between visits requires more time to address — the weekly cleaner is not simply repeating the same visit five times, they are cleaning a space that has had seven days of use since the last professional clean.
Note for office managers reading this guide: This page is written primarily for cleaning contractors. If you are an office manager looking for what to expect to pay for cleaning services, the same price ranges apply — see our office cleaning cost guide for the client-side perspective.
Understanding Your True Labour Cost
The most common pricing error in commercial cleaning is underestimating the true all-in labour cost. Many contractors price based on the Award wage rate alone and discover only later that the actual cost per hour of a worker is significantly higher once all on-costs are included.
For a casual Level 1 cleaning worker in Victoria in 2025–26, the all-in hourly cost to the employer includes the Award casual rate (approximately $26.50–$28.50 per hour depending on classification), the 25% casual loading already embedded in casual rates, superannuation at 11.5% of ordinary time earnings, WorkCover insurance premium (approximately 2–4% of wages in the cleaning industry), and any paid leave entitlements if the worker is permanent rather than casual.
After these on-costs, the effective cost of a cleaning worker to a Melbourne cleaning business is approximately $33–$42 per hour depending on classification, employment type, and the WorkCover premium rate applicable to the business. Any pricing model that assumes labour costs below $30 per hour is pricing below cost — it is drawing on owner's equity or unpaid labour to subsidise the program.
How to Calculate Your Per-Visit Price
Worked Cost Example — 150 sqm Office, Daily Program
The following illustrates a cost build-up for a hypothetical 150 sqm Melbourne commercial office cleaned daily, 5 days per week.
At the market rate table above, this falls within the $55–$90 range for 100–200 sqm on a daily program — towards the upper end of the range, reflecting a 150 sqm office with a full scope. A contractor charging $70 per visit for this office is either working below Award rates, running with no margin, or has underestimated the cleaning time. Over a 5-day week, that $30–$35 per-visit shortfall compounds to $150–$175 per week of either unpaid labour or eroded margin.
Per Hour vs Per Job — Which to Use
For regular commercial office cleaning programs, per-visit (per-job) pricing is strongly preferred by professional operators. Per-visit pricing gives the client a predictable monthly cost, removes the disincentive for the cleaner to work efficiently, and allows productivity improvements to be captured as margin rather than being returned to the client through shorter visit durations.
Hourly pricing for regular programs creates ongoing friction: clients who are charged per hour naturally track how long the cleaner spends on site, and any visit that is shorter than expected prompts a query about whether the full scope was completed. Per-visit pricing removes this dynamic entirely — the cleaner is accountable to the scope, not to a time clock.
Reserve hourly pricing for genuine one-off or ad hoc jobs where the scope is uncertain before the visit — post-construction cleans, end-of-tenancy cleans with unknown condition, or exploratory deep cleans. For these, hourly pricing protects both parties when the extent of work is genuinely unpredictable.
The Award Floor — Why Undercutting It Backfires
The Cleaning Services Award 2020 sets the minimum wage rates for cleaning industry workers in Australia. Pricing commercial office cleaning below the Award floor is not a competitive strategy — it is a legal and operational risk that creates predictable downstream problems.
The practical test: if your per-visit price implies an effective labour cost below approximately $30 per hour for after-hours cleaning work, your price is not Award-compliant for a worker paid at the minimum. For owner-operators who are the sole cleaner and exempt from the Award as a sole trader, this floor does not apply to their own labour — but it does apply the moment they engage any employed or contracted worker.
The most common consequence of below-Award pricing is high staff turnover. Workers who discover they are being paid below Award rates leave — typically within 3–6 months. The recruitment, induction, and training cost of replacing a cleaner on a commercial program erodes the margin savings from below-Award wages within the first replacement cycle. The second consequence is industrial risk: a Fair Work claim from an underpaid worker can result in back-pay liability covering up to 6 years of underpayment.
Common Pricing Mistakes That Erode Margin
Reviewing and Adjusting Your Prices Over Time
Commercial cleaning prices should be reviewed annually at minimum. Award wage increases take effect on 1 July each year following the Annual Wage Review — any Award increase that is not passed through to your pricing immediately becomes an ongoing margin reduction. The 2025–26 Award increase was approximately 3.75%, which translates to a $1.25–$1.60 per hour increase in the effective all-in labour cost for a standard casual cleaning worker. At 10 hours of cleaning per week for a single client, this represents approximately $650–$832 of additional annual labour cost that must be recovered through pricing or absorbed as a reduction in margin.
The most professional approach to price increases is a written notice to clients at least 30 days before the increase takes effect, citing the Award increase percentage as the basis for the adjustment. Clients who understand that Award increases are a legal obligation — not a discretionary request — are significantly more likely to accept routine annual adjustments than clients who receive an unexplained price increase without context. A brief covering note stating "the Annual Wage Review effective 1 July requires a $X per visit adjustment to reflect the Award rate increase" is both transparent and professionally appropriate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Looking for Melbourne Office Cleaning — Not Just a Price Guide?
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