UK outside Europe top 10 for average cleaning salaries

As reported by our sister publication Cleaning Matters, a study from London Cleaning System showed that the average wage of a cleaner in the UK is £7.27 an hour. While this is above the national minimum wage of £6.50, it is still lower than a host of European countries as well as many across the rest of the world - particularly in English speaking countries.

The research not only looked into the average wages of cleaners but the national minimum wages and unemployment rates of EU countries.

As the 11th highest in Europe, the UK pays almost £7 more per hour than a cleaner gets in Ukraine (£0.56) showing huge pay disparity, and distinctly more than the vast majority of countries but it is still some way off the biggest payers.

Luxembourg offers the best terms in Europe with cleaners earning £13.17 an hour. Belgium (£11.55), Finland (£11.08) and the Netherlands (£10.57) make up the rest of the top four and the only countries to pay more than £10 an hour for the service.

However, with a minimum wage of £10.31, Luxembourg doesn't take the award for the largest difference when compared to the national minimum wage.

According to the study, the best value for money for being a cleaner comes from Poland. With an average wage of £8.47 and a national minimum wage of just £2.43, thats a 249% differential for a better standard of living.

Other countries posting triple digit differences are Lithuania (106%) and Russia (135%) with Bulgaria (92%) and Spain (81%) not too far behind. It should be taken into account that Spain does also have a 17.5% unemployment rate while Germany and Belarus have just a 4% and 0.7% unemployment rate and 8% and 75% difference respectively.

London Cleaning System said: "With a large proportion of the workers in the British cleaning industry being from an EU country, it begs an interesting question as to why pick the UK with lucrative offers elsewhere like in Luxembourg and Belgium? Moreover, with Brexit looming, the disparity in pay in the UK with some European countries as well as political uncertainty makes it an even more interesting question."

It concluded: "With the need for these (cleaning) services growing across the United Kingdom, the Brexit fallout could see us lose more than half a million EU migrants in leading cleaning companies in London and similar positions."

Find out all the stats and view the full infographic here.