What a shift really involves
Office cleaning is rarely one big task. It is a route through a building on a schedule. You empty bins and separate waste, vacuum and mop floors, wipe desks, door handles, lifts and light switches, clean washrooms and restock soap and paper, then do the kitchen or staff room. Many sites also expect you to set the alarm, lock up, and log in and out on the client's time and attendance system.
A lot of these jobs are lone worker roles. You will be in a building on your own with a radio or phone number for the supervisor. If that sounds unnerving, ask during the interview how the site handles check-ins and what happens if you cannot get in.
Commercial cleaning also means colour-coded cloths, dilution ratios and COSHH sheets, which are the safety documents covering cleaning chemicals. Employers usually put you through a short induction on these, and it counts as paid time.
Pay in 2026: the legal floor and what sits above it
The statutory minimum for anyone 21 and over is the National Living Wage, which became £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026 under Low Pay Commission recommendations. Rates below that run at £10.85 for 18 to 20 year olds and £8.00 for under 18s and apprentices.
Above that floor sits the voluntary Real Living Wage, set at £13.45 nationally and £14.80 in London from April 2026. Employers who sign up to it pay it across all staff, including cleaners, and councils and NHS trusts are often among them.
Current office cleaning adverts cluster between £12.71 and £15.00 an hour. A part-time bank site role in Lichfield was advertised at £13.65, a public sector temporary post in Bridgend at £13.16, and a national contractor's office shifts at £12.71 to £15.00 depending on hours and location. Salary survey data puts the average for office cleaners in England at roughly £30,400 a year, with entry level nearer £26,400 and experienced staff around £33,700, though those figures reflect full-time equivalent pay rather than what part-timers take home.
| Route | Typical set-up | Advertised pay | Suits | Worth checking |
|---|
| Agency or contractor shift | 2 to 4 hours a day, Mon to Fri | £12.71 to £15.00 an hour | People wanting work fast, weekend cover | Travel between sites, cancelled shifts |
| In-house team (council, NHS, university) | 15 to 20 hours a week, set rota | £13.16 to £13.65 an hour | Anyone wanting pension and sick pay | Probation length, shift patterns |
| Bank or relief cover | Calls on the day, variable sites | Around the Living Wage, sometimes higher | Fitting work around study or childcare | Whether minimum hours are guaranteed |
| Supervisory or keyholder role | Same cleaning plus checks and locking up | A little above standard rate | Experienced cleaners | Training provided, alarm responsibility |
| Self-employed sole trader | Direct contracts with small offices | Set by you, invoiced monthly | People with a car and existing clients | Insurance, tax returns, chasing invoices |
Where applicants get stuck
Hours are the first obstacle. A five-hour-a-week evening slot in Lichfield, half an hour a night, sounds easy until you price the bus fare. Split shifts of 6am to 8am and 6pm to 8pm are common in larger buildings, and they can be brutal alongside school runs.
Paperwork is the second. Basic DBS checks, right to work evidence and, on financial sites, adverse credit checks can add a couple of weeks before a start date. Non-UK and non-Irish applicants need a share code, and employers will ask for it rather than a physical document.
The third is unpaid travel. Mobile rounds covering three or four sites in a morning sometimes only pay for the time on site. Ask directly whether travel between buildings is on the clock, and get the answer in the offer letter.
Zero-hours arrangements and last-minute cancellations are the fourth. So is responsibility without authority: being handed keys and an alarm code on your first week, with no written procedure for what to do when something is wrong.
From applying to getting shifts
Get the documents sorted before you apply. Passport or share code, proof of address, National Insurance number and two references, one of which should be from a previous employer if you have one. A basic DBS takes a short while to come back, and many employers will start the process for you.
Write a one-page CV that names the buildings and tasks rather than the personality traits. "Cleaned 12 washrooms and three kitchen areas nightly at a 400-desk site" tells a supervisor far more than "hardworking team player". If you have no commercial experience, list domestic work, end-of-tenancy cleaning, volunteering or hotel housekeeping, and say which equipment you have used.
Apply in two directions at once. Contractors such as the national facilities firms advertise constantly on job boards and their own careers pages, and they hire in volume. In-house teams at councils, NHS trusts, universities and large landlords recruit less often but offer pension, statutory holiday and sick pay.
Turn up at handover time. Between 5pm and 7pm you will find supervisors on site, and a short conversation about upcoming cover beats a hundred online applications. Ask about guaranteed hours, uniform, and whether the site has parking.
Take the trial shift. Most contractors offer one, paid or unpaid depending on the arrangement, and it is the fastest way to see whether the building, the route and the supervisor suit you.
A common pattern: a cleaner in south London took three evenings a week, 6pm to 7.30pm, at a small office block, then added a Saturday deep clean at the same building once the supervisor saw she was reliable. Within four months she had first refusal on cover shifts, which is how part-time cleaning quietly turns into something closer to steady income.
Regional notes and local resources
London pay sits higher because of the real Living Wage rate and travel costs, but so do fares and rent, so compare take-home rather than headline rates. Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol advertise close to the national figures, with city centre sites easier to reach by tram or bus than out-of-town business parks.
Scotland uses Disclosure Scotland checks, and Northern Ireland uses AccessNI, so the wording on adverts will differ from England and Wales. Council job pages, university HR sites and NHS trust recruitment portals are worth bookmarking, and jobcentres still list a lot of part-time cleaning work that never reaches the big boards.
Training helps more than most people expect. Short courses in cleaning and support services, manual handling and food hygiene are cheap, sometimes subsidised through a local college or an employer, and they move your application up the pile for supervisory and keyholder posts.
One last thing worth doing
Before you sign, ask three questions in writing: how many hours are guaranteed, whether travel between sites is paid, and what the notice period is for shift changes. Cleaners who ask these early tend to stay longer, because the job then matches what they were told.
If you are weighing up a specific advert, ring the supervisor before the closing date. A two-minute call about the rota will tell you more than the job description does.
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