Hourly rate is the most useful number in commercial cleaning, and the one providers are least willing to discuss. Here’s what the rates actually are, and, more usefully, what they have to cover.
Current NZ hourly rates
| Service type | Typical range (excl GST) |
|---|---|
| Standard office cleaning | $35 – $50 |
| Medical / clinical | $45 – $65 |
| School / childcare | $40 – $55 |
| Retail / hospitality | $38 – $52 |
| Warehouse / industrial | $40 – $60 |
| Builders clean | $45 – $70 |
| One-off / casual | $50 – $75 |
What the rate has to cover
This is the part that explains why very low quotes fail. From a $40/hour charge-out rate, a legitimate operator is covering:
- Wages. The cleaner’s actual hourly pay, which after minimum wage and any living-wage commitment is the largest single component.
- Holiday pay. 8% on top, minimum.
- ACC levies. Employer levies on every hour worked.
- KiwiSaver. Employer contribution where applicable.
- Public liability insurance. Meaningful annual cost spread across billable hours.
- Equipment. Vacuums, machines, microfibre, mops, all consumed and replaced.
- Consumables. Chemicals at minimum, often paper and soap too.
- Travel. Between sites, unpaid to the client but real.
- Supervision and quality control. Someone has to check the work.
- Admin. Scheduling, invoicing, payroll, compliance.
- Margin. Without which the business fails and you’re re-tendering.
Work through that list and $32/hour is roughly break-even for a compliant operator. Below it, something is being cut.
Why the cheap quote is expensive
The failure pattern is consistent enough to be predictable:
- A provider quotes 20 hours a week for a job that genuinely needs 28.
- For the first month, they work the 28 hours and lose money.
- By week six, the cleaner is quietly working 20 and choosing what to drop.
- What gets dropped is what generates the fewest immediate complaints: dusting, edges, under desks, behind furniture, high-touch sanitising.
- Three months later the building feels tired, and nobody can point to when it started.
The client didn’t save money. They bought fewer hours and found out slowly.
Hourly vs fixed monthly
Most contracts are quoted as a fixed monthly price, but that number is always built up from an hourly estimate underneath. Fixed monthly is fine, often better, because it’s predictable, as long as you know the hours behind it.
Always ask what hours the price assumes, and get it in the specification. It converts a vague relationship into a checkable one: if the specification says 22 hours a week and you’re seeing one cleaner for three hours a night, the arithmetic doesn’t work and you have a concrete conversation to have.
Comparing quotes properly
Normalise everything to a real hourly rate:
Real hourly rate = Monthly price ÷ (hours per visit × visits per week × 4.33)
Then compare that. A quote that looks 15% cheaper often turns out to buy 30% fewer hours.
Related reading
- How much does commercial cleaning cost in NZ?, full price guide with monthly contract ranges
- What to check before you sign a cleaning quote