Housekeeper salary

What It Means

Housekeeper salary is what a housekeeper is paid to clean and look after a home, or rooms in a hotel, hospital or other business. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counts housekeepers in its occupation "maids and housekeeping cleaners", whose median wage was $17.07 an hour, or $35,510 a year, in May 2025. That survey covers people employed by businesses, so a housekeeper hired directly by a family isn't in the figure.

How People Say It at Work

• "She's been our housekeeper for years, every Tuesday and Friday."
• "We pay our housekeeper by the hour."
• "Are you hiring her yourself or going through an agency?"

The Breakdown

The figure, with its source

O*NET lists housekeeper, guest room attendant, room cleaner and environmental services worker among the job titles in this occupation, so the median mixes home, hotel and hospital work. BLS's wage survey covers wage and salary workers at businesses and leaves out household workers and the self-employed.

Worked example. A family hires a housekeeper directly for 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more hours a week at $20 an hour and pays all 52 weeks (example numbers). That comes to $200 a week and $10,400 a year in cash wages. Since $10,400 is past the $3,000 line IRS Publication 926 sets for 2026, social security and Medicare taxes apply if the housekeeper is the family's household employeeHousehold employeeA worker you hire to do household work, such as a nanny or housekeeper, when you control both what work they do and how they do it. See more.

What moves the number

• Who the housekeeper works for. Only housekeepers on a business's payroll, an agency's included, are in the BLS figure.
• Where the work is. BLS publishes state estimates from the same May 2025 survey alongside the national one.
• The minimum wageMinimum wageThe lowest hourly pay the law allows an employer to pay; the federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, and a higher state or local rate wins where one applies. See more. The federal floor is $7.25 an hour for covered nonexempt employees, and a higher state or local minimum wins where one applies, according to the Department of Labor.

Good to Know

Who the housekeeper works for matters for taxes. The IRS says a worker is your household employee when you can control both what work they do and how they do it. A worker provided by an agency that controls the work isn't your employee, and neither is a self-employed cleaner who controls how the job is done, typically brings their own tools and offers their services to the public. If you do have a household employee, IRS Publication 926 (2026) says social security and Medicare taxes apply once you pay that person $3,000 or more in cash wages in 2026, and federal unemploymentUnemployment benefitsWeekly payments from a state's unemployment insurance program to eligible workers who lose a job through no fault of their own, with rules set by each state. See more tax applies once you pay $1,000 or more in cash wages to household employees in any calendar quarter. For your own situation, read the current edition of Publication 926 or ask a tax professional.

Related Terms and Categories

• House cleaner cost

  What you pay to have someone clean your home, quoted by the hour or as a flat price per visit, which is more than the cleaner's own hourly wage.

• Cleaning service

  A business or person you pay to clean your home, usually by the visit or by the hour, on a one-time or regular schedule.

• Household employee

  A worker you hire to do household work, such as a nanny or housekeeper, when you control both what work they do and how they do it.

• Nanny tax

  The federal employment taxes a family owes when it pays a nanny or other household employee enough cash wages in a year, reported on Schedule H.

• Tipping house cleaners

  Giving a house cleaner extra money beyond the price of the service, either at visits or once a year, which is a choice with no official rule.

Pay, rates and costs