Operator Guide · Updated 18 May 2026
A plain-language guide to award MA000022 — classification levels, casual loading, weekend penalties, and allowances. Designed for operators rostering cleaners across residential, commercial, end-of-lease, and recurring contract work.
Step 1 — Classify Your Cleaners
Every cleaner you employ must be classified at Level 1, 2, or 3. Misclassification (paying a Level 2 cleaner at Level 1 rates) is the most common underpayment finding in Fair Work audits of cleaning businesses.
Routine cleaning duties under direct supervision. New starters, residential and commercial routine cleans. The base rate of the award.
Typical duties
Specific equipment or technique knowledge. Specialty rooms, hard surfaces, or equipment beyond domestic vacuum cleaners.
Typical duties
Trade-equivalent skill, supervisory work, or specialised commercial qualification. Carpet steam extraction with technical knowledge, leading a small team.
Typical duties
Step 2 — Apply Loadings
Loadings are percentage additions to the base hourly rate. They stack — a casual cleaner working Sunday afternoon attracts the casual loading + Sunday penalty + (potentially) afternoon shift loading.
| Type | Loading | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Casual loading | +25% | Added to base hourly rate for casual employees in lieu of annual leave, personal leave, and notice entitlements. |
| Saturday penalty | +50% | Full-time, part-time, and casual employees working ordinary Saturday hours. |
| Sunday penalty | +100% | Double time for Sunday work — applies to all employee classes. |
| Public holiday | +150% | Double time and a half for public holiday work, in addition to entitlement to the holiday at ordinary rates if rostered. |
| Shift loading — afternoon | +15% | For shifts finishing after 7pm and before midnight — common for office cleaning. |
| Shift loading — night | +30% | For shifts finishing after midnight or starting before 5am — common for shopping-centre cleaning. |
Percentages reflect the structure of MA000022 at the time of review. Always confirm specific clauses against the current instrument on fwc.gov.au.
Step 3 — Add Allowances
Allowances are flat dollar amounts (per day, per shift, or per kilometre) rather than percentages. Several have specific eligibility criteria — pay-tool lookups beat memory every time.
For nominated employees holding a current first-aid certificate and required to perform first-aid duties.
Per-day amount paid when toilets form part of routine cleaning duties (industry-standard inclusion in most quotes).
Weekly amount where an employee leads 3+ other cleaners. Tiered by team size.
Paid travel time at ordinary rate when an employee is required to move between sites during a shift.
Per-kilometre amount when an employee uses their own vehicle for work-required travel.
Per-shift amount when the day's work is split into two or more separate periods — common for split-shift commercial cleaning.
Split-shift commercial cleaning (a 4am office shift + a 6pm shift) is legitimate under the award — but each broken-shift triggers an allowance plus shift loadings. Quoting commercial contracts that under-cost the loadings is the #1 way operators lose margin without realising.
Operators sometimes view +25% casual loading as a cost to avoid. It's actually the legal substitute for leave accrual — if you under-pay casual loading, you can't later claim leave was “rolled in”. Pay it cleanly, separately on every payslip.
Time-and-wages records must be kept for 7 years. Cleaning businesses are a known Fair Work audit target — clock-in records, rostering, and payslips need to reconcile. Software that timestamps clock-in/out (like the OneBookPlus mobile clock) makes this trivial.
The Superannuation Guarantee applies on top of award wages (currently 11.5% rising to 12% in July 2025 onward). Many cleaning underpayment claims succeed not on the hourly rate but on missed super contributions — set up SuperStream from day one.
The Cleaning Services Award 2020 (MA000022) covers most commercial and residential cleaning operations in Australia. Sole traders without employees don't strictly fall under the award, but anyone with even one part-time or casual cleaner does.
Specific dollar amounts change each July when the Fair Work Commission updates minimum award wages. Always check the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay & Conditions Tool (pay.fairwork.gov.au) or the Cleaning Services Award page on fwc.gov.au for current rates. Rates published in third-party guides go stale fast.
Yes. Classification (Level 1, 2, or 3) determines the base hourly rate. Misclassifying a Level 2 cleaner at Level 1 to save labour cost is an underpayment risk that compounds across pay periods. The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes plain-language classification guidance.
Casual loading (+25%) is paid on every casual hour worked, in lieu of paid leave entitlements. Overtime is paid when actual hours worked exceed the daily or weekly ordinary-hours threshold — typically +50% for the first 2 hours and +100% thereafter. A casual employee can receive both: casual loading on every hour, plus overtime rates on hours worked beyond the threshold.
If an employee is required to move between sites during a shift (e.g., a cleaner doing offices A, B, and C on a single afternoon roster), the travel time between them is paid at ordinary rates. Travel from home to the first site and from the last site to home is generally unpaid (commute).
Body-corporate / strata cleaning falls under the same Cleaning Services Award as commercial cleaning. Strata complexes are commercial clients in this context, not residential.
OneBookPlus mobile clock timestamps every shift, calculates elapsed hours, and feeds your existing payroll provider — built for Australian cleaning operators.
Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha
About the author
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal has over a decade of experience in digital marketing, web development, and small business consulting across Australia. Bishal has reviewed Modern Award MA000022 rostering with cleaning business owners across Australia.
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