What a Cleaner payslip looks like
A typical UK cleaner payslip is paid four-weekly and shows a basic pay line at the top. Cleaners are predominantly hourly with facilities providers; LLW-accredited contracts pay above the legal minimum. The line items below depend on grade, shift pattern and contractual additions, but the structure usually mirrors HMRC's recommended payslip layout: a payments block, a deductions block, a year-to-date column, and a net pay summary.
Common employers in this occupation include Mitie, ISS UK, OCS Group. Each employer runs payroll slightly differently, but the underlying PAYE computation against tax code 1257L and Class 1 National Insurance is identical across the UK (excluding Scotland for income tax). The biggest variability between two cleaner payslips at the same gross will be in the additions block: Cleaners on facilities-management contracts often work split shifts and see two assignment lines, plus London Living Wage uplift where the client mandates it.
Year-to-date columns are critical to verify on this role because the additions and salary sacrifice items change month to month. If your YTD gross divided by months elapsed in the tax year does not match your expected annual run-rate, that is the single best signal that something is mis-coded.
Applies to some of this work
Flat rate expenses for uniforms, work clothing and tools and cleaner pay
One job title, three amounts, decided entirely by the premises. Clean a hospital and you are a hospital domestic at £125. Clean vehicles in a bus or coach depot and you are a garage hand at £80. Clean an office, a school or a private house and no row names you, so the figure is £60 for laundering your own tabard or overalls, which HMRC accepts as protective clothing. In all three the claim dies if the employer supplies and washes the kit.
- Standard rate where your trade has no agreed figure
- £60 a year
- What a £60 deduction is actually worth
- £12 a year at the 20% rate
Educational only. Whether this reaches your own pay turns on your contract and how you are engaged, and tribunal and claim time limits are short. Check the limit that applies to you before relying on a date.
Flat rate expenses for uniforms, work clothing and tools: the rates, the payslip lines, what goes wrong and the 27 primary sources. Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 367 (fixed sum deductions for repairing and maintaining work equipment), sitting inside the general rule at section 336, with the agreed amounts published at EIM32712, in force for the tax years 2008 to 2009 onwards, the span the published table of amounts gives itself.
Depends how you are engaged
Term time only pay and holiday pay for part-year workers and cleaner pay
HMRC's minimum wage guidance names school cleaning staff as its own example of people who work in term time only and are paid a regular weekly or monthly amount right through the year, which makes them salaried hours workers rather than time workers. Facilities management cleaning on an all year contract is the opposite case and none of this reaches it. The distinction decides how your pay is tested: a salaried hours worker is measured against the basic annual hours divided by the number of pay days in the year, so a heavy month during term does not by itself put the employer in breach, and a quiet month during the holidays does not by itself put you above the rate.
- Statutory paid annual leave
- 5.6 weeks
- Accrual rate for irregular hours and part-year workers
- 12.07%
Educational only. Whether this reaches your own pay turns on your contract and how you are engaged, and tribunal and claim time limits are short. Check the limit that applies to you before relying on a date.
Term time only pay and holiday pay for part-year workers: the rates, the payslip lines, what goes wrong and the 17 primary sources. Working Time Regulations 1998, regulations 13A, 15B, 15F, 16 and 16A, as amended by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1426), and Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21, in force leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, with Brazel decided 20 July 2022.
Applies to some of this work
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and cleaner pay
School and council cleaning has been contracted out for decades, and the admission agreement is what decides the answer on any given site. Where one is in place the scheme's own guidance is that some admission bodies allow membership only for employees whose job transferred to them from a local government employer, which produces the situation this trade is full of: two cleaners on the same corridor doing the same shift, one still in the LGPS from the transfer and one in the contractor's auto-enrolment scheme because they were hired afterwards. A directly employed school or council cleaner is simply a member.
- Lowest band, England and Wales
- 5.5% on actual pensionable pay up to £18,400
- A middle band, England and Wales
- 6.5% on £29,001 to £47,300
Educational only. Whether this reaches your own pay turns on your contract and how you are engaged, and tribunal and claim time limits are short. Check the limit that applies to you before relying on a date.
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS): the rates, the payslip lines, what goes wrong and the 22 primary sources. The Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/2356), in force 1 April 2026 for the contribution bands, with career average build-up since 1 April 2014.
Cleaner salary bands (UK 2024)
ONS ASHE 2024 full-time gross pay. Net figures use 2026/27 PAYE bands and assume 5% of qualifying earnings (£6,240–£50,270) under a net-pay arrangement — before income tax, but not before National Insurance.
| Band | Gross / year | Net / year | Net / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th percentile | £21,300 | £18,253 | £1,521 |
| Median | £22,100 | £18,797 | £1,566 |
| 75th percentile | £24,000 | £20,089 | £1,674 |
Common deductions for a Cleaner
- PAYE income tax.Calculated against tax code 1257L. Cumulative coding means refunds can appear if you start mid-year.
- National Insurance (Class 1).8% between £12,570 and £50,270 of annual earnings, then 2% above. Period-by-period method is standard.
- Pension.Auto-enrolment minimum 5% employee on qualifying earnings (£6,240 - £50,270), unless your employer runs a more generous scheme such as the NHS, Teachers Pension or Civil Service alpha.
- Salary sacrifice patterns.Common in this occupation: cycle-to-work, electric-car salary sacrifice, additional pension contributions, and where applicable workplace nursery vouchers (still tax-efficient via pre-existing schemes).
- Union or professional body.Tax-deductible for HMRC-listed bodies. Cleaners commonly hold subscriptions covered by section 344 ITEPA 2003 (List 3).
Cleaner payslip FAQ
What is the average Cleaner salary in the UK in 2024?
According to ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024 for SOC code 9233, the median full-time gross annual salary for a Cleaner in the UK is approximately £22,100. The 25th percentile sits at £21,300 and the 75th at £24,000.
What is take-home pay on a median Cleaner salary?
On £22,100 gross with the standard 1257L tax code and 5% of qualifying earnings into a net-pay pension, monthly take-home is approximately £1,566 after PAYE income tax, Class 1 employee National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension. Actual figures vary if you have student loan, salary sacrifice or a non-cumulative tax code.
What is unusual about a Cleaner payslip?
Cleaners on facilities-management contracts often work split shifts and see two assignment lines, plus London Living Wage uplift where the client mandates it.
Which tax code should a Cleaner typically be on?
Most people in this role on standard PAYE will see 1257L. Check the prefix and suffix carefully: a K-prefix means deductions exceed your allowance (often after a bonus or P11D benefit), 0T means you have no allowance left at this employer, and BR means basic rate on the whole job (common in second jobs).
Salary estimates: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024, full-time gross annual pay by SOC 2020 occupation. Figures rounded to nearest £100.