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INCleaning Services Award Pay Calculator
Work out what a week under the Cleaning Services Award actually pays — the right CSE level, early-morning, night and weekend penalties, casual loading and super, calculated the way the award says.
How the Cleaning Services Award is applied
- Minimum rates are set per CSE level — the calculator uses the adult rates from Table 2, current from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
- Casuals get a 25% loading, and the shift/weekend percentages below already include it.
- A Monday–Friday shift that starts before 6am or finishes after 6pm attracts a 115% penalty (140% casual) — for the entire shift, not just the early or late hours.
- Overtime applies beyond 38 weekly hours (or 7.6 in a day): 150% for the first 2 hours, then 200%, Monday to Saturday (casuals: 175% / 225%).
- Superannuation (12%) applies to ordinary-time earnings, including penalty rates — but not to overtime.
- Part-timers are this award’s quiet trap: they earn a 15% loading on every ordinary hour and have their own, higher penalty column (Saturday 165%, not 150%) — the full-time figures here understate a part-time roster.
Who the award covers
- Contract cleaning businesses — cleaning offices, shops, schools and buildings under contract
- Event cleaning — sporting, cultural, entertainment and exhibition venues
- Hygiene and pollution control services
- Shopping trolley collection (unless covered by the Retail Award)
- Minor property maintenance that is incidental to cleaning
- Labour hire staff placed into contract cleaning businesses
The award covers contract cleaners — cleaners employed in-house by the business whose premises they clean usually sit under that business’s own award, and trolley collection by a retailer’s own staff falls under the General Retail Industry Award — check before you classify.
Which level is your team member?
The Cleaning Services Award keeps classification simple: one ladder, three levels of Cleaning Services Employee (CSE 1–3). Progression is cumulative — a CSE 2 may do anything a CSE 1 does, and a CSE 3 anything below — so classify by the highest skill level the job requires, not the routine tasks that fill most of the day.
| Level | Per hour | Per week (38h) | Typical roles | The test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSE Level 1 | $27.08 | $1028.90 | Cleaner · Office and commercial cleaner · Toilet and washroom cleaner · Trolley collector | The front line: sweeping, mopping, spot cleaning, glass and toilet cleaning, dusting, rubbish and trolley collection — responsible for their own work under routine supervision. The award’s “standard rate”. |
| CSE Level 2 | $27.97 | $1062.90 | Carpet cleaner · Window cleaner (swing scaffold) · Ride-on machine operator · Leading hand | Higher-skill cleaning under general supervision: carpet cleaning, exterior multi-storey window work, ride-on machinery, steam or pressure cleaning, minor building maintenance or leading-hand duties. |
| CSE Level 3 | $29.45 | $1119.10 | Building supervisor · Cleaning manager | Coordinates the work of Level 1 and 2 cleaners and generally superintends a building’s cleaning as a supervisor or manager, with knowledge of the employer’s operation. |
- CSE 1 covers the work most cleaning teams do most of the time: mopping, dusting, toilets, glass, rubbish and trolley collection under routine supervision.
- Specialist skills lift someone to CSE 2 — carpet cleaning, exterior multi-storey window cleaning from swing scaffolds, ride-on machinery, steam and pressure cleaning, or leading-hand duties.
- CSE 3 is for genuine supervision: coordinating other cleaners and superintending a building’s cleaning as the supervisor or manager.
- Junior rates exist only for shopping trolley collection contractors — everywhere else in this award, juniors are paid the full adult rate.
Allowances that can apply on top
Base rates and penalties aren’t the whole pay picture. The Cleaning Services Award adds allowances for particular duties and situations — being the designated first aid officer, working overtime without notice, using your own car. They’re small lines individually, but they’re legal entitlements and they add up. The common ones (1 July 2026 amounts):
The calculator below doesn’t include allowances — add the ones that apply to your team on top of the result. The full list lives in the award’s allowances clause.
Break entitlements under the Cleaning Services Award
Breaks are part of the award too — and missed or worked-through breaks usually carry a penalty rate, so they belong in the roster, not just the tea room. Here’s what the Cleaning Services Award requires:
The full rules live in clause 14 of the award.
Calculate a week under the Cleaning Services Award
Enter the week as it’s actually rostered. Weekend, evening and public-holiday hours are paid at the award’s penalty rates; anything beyond 38 hours is priced as overtime; super is applied to ordinary-time earnings only.
Rates current as of 1 July 2026 (adult minimums, MA000022) — first full pay period on or after that date.
This week’s numbers
Nothing is stored or sent — the maths runs on this page.
Are these the exact legal rates?
The level minimums are the adult full-time and casual rates from the award (Table 2), current at 1 July 2026. Part-time employees have their own penalty column — every percentage sits 15 points higher, reflecting their 15% hourly loading — and juniors of trolley collection contractors are on a percentage scale. Treat the result as a planning number and confirm against the award or your payroll adviser.
What counts as an early or late shift?
Any Monday–Friday shift that starts before 6am or finishes after 6pm. The 115% penalty (140% casual) then applies to the whole shift — a 5pm–9pm office clean is paid at the penalty rate from the first hour, not just after 6pm.
What’s the minimum shift I can roster?
For part-timers and casuals it scales with the size of the site: 1 hour for a sole cleaner at a small stand-alone location (up to 300 m²), 2 hours up to 2,000 m², 3 hours from 2,000–5,000 m², and 4 hours beyond that. You pay the minimum even if the work takes less time.
Does super apply to penalty rates?
Yes — early/late, night, weekend and public-holiday penalties on ordinary hours are ordinary-time earnings, so the 12% super guarantee applies. True overtime is excluded. The calculator applies exactly that split.
Why does the calculator add a long service leave levy?
Contract cleaning is one of the sectors NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT have carved out a portable long service leave scheme for — precisely because cleaners move between contractors so often. Registered employers pay a quarterly levy into the scheme on top of wages, funding the worker’s leave even if they change employer. The calculator adds it automatically when you select one of those states; untick the box if your workers aren’t registered.
This is a general calculator, not legal advice. It applies the award’s published adult minimums to the hours you enter — it can’t see your enterprise agreement, allowances or individual arrangements, and junior, apprentice and shiftwork rates differ. Always confirm pay against the award, your agreement or your adviser. If you believe something here is materially wrong or out of date, please contact us — we’ll review it promptly.
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Tommy applies the right award rates to every shift as you roster — penalties, loading and super included. Start with your email and your numbers come along.
