- The middle half earn between $16.63 and $20.74 an hour.
- Illinois ranks 17th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Illinois pays more than all 5 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 26,150 house cleaners on payrolls in Illinois.
- At the state median wage, a cleaning company needs to bill about $101.30 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
House Cleaner pay in Illinois, bottom to top
BLS files house cleaners under maids and housekeeping cleaners, a group that also includes hotel and hospital housekeeping staff.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $15.00 | $31,200 | $13.29 |
| 25th percentile | $16.63 | $34,590 | $14.59 |
| Median | $17.49 | $36,380 | $17.07 |
| 75th percentile | $20.74 | $43,150 | $19.03 |
| 90th percentile | $23.99 | $49,910 | $23.35 |
| Average (mean) | $18.73 | $38,960 | $17.83 |
Pay is bunched up in Illinois. The top tenth earn $23.99 an hour or more, about 1.6 times the $15.00 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 1.8 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $15.00 against $13.29 at the bottom tenth, and $23.99 against $23.35 at the top.
The average wage, $18.73, sits 7% above the median. A smaller group of higher earners pulls the average up, so the median is the better guide to what a typical house cleaner makes.
How Illinois compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $36,380 in Illinois against $35,510 nationally, $870 more.
In the state ranking, Illinois sits 17th, between New Hampshire ($17.75) and Utah ($17.44). The range runs from $12.19 in Mississippi to $24.81 in Hawaii.
Illinois pays house cleaners more than any of its neighboring states, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Someone working near the border can earn more by taking work on this side of it.
How many house cleaners work in Illinois
About 26,150 house cleaners work on payrolls in Illinois, 3.0% of the 860,670 nationwide, the 7th largest count among the states.
It is a smaller part of local jobs than in most of the country, at 4.3 per 1,000 jobs, 0.77 times the national share.
What a cleaning company in Illinois should charge
Say you run a cleaning company in Illinois and pay the state median of $17.49 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on its starting numbers: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $17.49 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $39,162 |
| Break-even rate | ($39,162 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $86.11 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $86.11 ÷ 0.85 | $101.30 |
That is $101.30 per billable hour, 5.8 times the wage, and almost the same as the $100.57 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $20.74 in Illinois, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $107.01.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $16.63, the rate only drops to $99.79.
At this wage, overhead is most of the price: $60 of every billed hour goes to it before anyone is paid. Spreading the same overhead over more billable hours, with a second person or less drive time, brings the rate down fastest.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a house cleaner in Illinois
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how cleaning companies run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 37-2012, maids and housekeeping cleaners, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: house cleaner salary by state.