Contract cleaning for an Australian venue runs about A$40 to A$65 an hour in 2026 and a small kitchen deep clean A$280 to A$560 a visit, against a casual award floor of A$33.85 an hour that every quote must cover.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and takeaways in Australia and New Zealand, so we spend a lot of time talking to operators at close, which is when the cleaning question comes up. Every page that prices restaurant cleaning gives you an hourly band and stops. None of them shows you the published wage floor that sits inside the band, which is the only number that tells you whether a quote is cheap or impossible. This page puts the two side by side, with dates on both.
Two independent Australian cost guides, both read on 12 October 2026, put the band in roughly the same place. One verified its prices in October 2026 at A$40 to A$65 an hour for most contract commercial work, with city bands running from about A$35 to A$55 in Hobart up to A$48 to A$74 in Darwin. The other, a Brisbane and Gold Coast contractor writing in September 2026, states A$35 to A$65 and over, with standard offices at A$35 to A$50. Treat the second as advertised rather than surveyed, because the publisher sells the service.
Here is the part worth knowing before you ring anyone. NEITHER guide publishes a restaurant or cafe rate. The first one's only hospitality line is prose, that pricing tracks the office hourly band with loadings for late finishes, with no number attached to it. So there is no published Australian restaurant cleaning hourly rate, and any page that hands you one has either borrowed the office figure or made it up. The honest answer is that a venue sits at or above the top of the office band, because the hours are unsociable and the soil is grease.
One more caution about that first guide: its city table and its "from" prices do not agree with each other. Melbourne is listed as from A$35 in one place and as a A$40 to A$70 band in another. Quote the band.
A cleaning price is not a wage. It has to cover one, and the floor is published. A contract cleaner working in your restaurant is covered by the Cleaning Services Award MA000022, and the Fair Work Ombudsman's award summary published 24 June 2026 sets these hourly minimums from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
| Cleaning services employee | Full time | Casual | Casual Saturday | Casual Sunday | Casual public holiday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | A$27.08 | A$33.85 | A$47.39 | A$60.93 | A$74.47 |
| Level 2 | A$27.97 | A$34.96 | A$48.95 | A$62.93 | A$76.92 |
| Level 3 | A$29.45 | A$36.81 | A$51.54 | A$66.26 | A$80.99 |
Now put the two side by side. A quote of A$40 an hour for a weekday close down leaves A$6.15 over the casual level 1 floor of A$33.85, and 12% superannuation guarantee on the wage alone is A$4.06 of that. Insurance, chemicals, equipment, travel, supervision and margin come out of the A$2.09 left. The same A$40 an hour on a Sunday close is A$20.93 BELOW the casual Sunday floor of A$60.93. It cannot be done lawfully by a casual on the award, which means either the cleaner is full time and rostered differently, or someone is wearing a loss, or someone is underpaid.
That is the one calculation to run on every quote you get, and it is the reason this page exists. Nobody selling cleaning publishes the floor their own price sits on.
A coincidence worth using: at 1 July 2026 the MA000022 level 1 full time rate of A$27.08 is exactly the same as the level 2 rate on the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, the grade your food and beverage attendant grade 2 sits on. The base hour costs the same whoever mops. What differs is everything around it, which is the next section.
Sometimes, and the deciding factor is not the hourly rate, because the base rates match. It is these four things.
Honest conclusion by category, because it makes the rest of the page worth reading. If you close before 10pm on weekdays and your floor area is small, in house is usually cheaper and the flexibility is worth more than the saving. If you trade late, trade weekends, or have a kitchen that needs degreasing rather than wiping, a contract is cheaper once you price the penalty hours honestly.
A small commercial kitchen deep clean is priced per visit rather than per hour. The October 2026 guide puts it at A$280 to A$560 a visit, typically about A$400. Priced by area instead, an end of lease or deep clean runs A$6 to A$12 a square metre and a commercial carpet steam clean A$3 to A$6 a square metre. A regular contract priced by area rather than by the hour sits at A$2.50 to A$6 a square metre a month.
Deep cleaning is not the same job as exhaust cleaning and it is not priced the same way. The canopy, the ductwork and the fan are a separate trade on a separate interval, and we price that on commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning. The grease trap is a third trade again, priced by volume and pump out frequency, on grease trap cleaning cost. If a single quote covers floors, canopy and trap, ask for it itemised, because the three have nothing to do with each other and the margin hides in the bundle.
A worked example, labelled as ours, built from the linked figures above so you can follow or change any input.
| Input | Value used |
|---|---|
| Floor area | 90 square metres |
| Cleans a week | 6 |
| Hours a clean | 1.5 |
| Hours a week | 9 |
| Contract rate used | A$40 low, A$65 high (October 2026 band) |
| Kitchen deep clean | quarterly at about A$400 |
Nine hours a week at A$40 is A$360 a week, or A$18,720 a year. At A$65 it is A$585 a week, or A$30,420 a year. Add four kitchen deep cleans at about A$400 and you land at roughly A$20,320 to A$32,020 a year for floors, surfaces and a quarterly degrease, before the canopy and the trap.
Sense check it against the wage floor. Nine weekday hours at the casual level 1 rate of A$33.85 is A$304.65, so the A$360 quote is 18% above the labour it has to buy and the A$585 quote is 92% above it. If any quote you are given lands under A$305 a week for those nine hours, the arithmetic does not work and you should ask how.
Where this sits in the rest of your cost base is on restaurant overhead costs, and the compliance side of keeping premises clean, including the pest obligations that a cleaning schedule is evidence for, is on restaurant pest control requirements.
Five lines, and the absence of any one of them is where disputes start.
If you are a one person takeaway closing at 8pm with 30 square metres of hard floor, a contract cleaner is not your next purchase. Buy a decent machine, build the close down into the last shift, and spend the money on the canopy interval instead, because that is the one with a fire risk and a legal obligation attached. Cleaning contracts earn their keep at scale and at late hours, not at small and early.
It is not legal or industrial advice and it does not price a specific classification, junior, apprentice, overtime band or split shift. For any of those, read the Fair Work Ombudsman's minimum wages guidance and ask it about your exact circumstances. Award rates change every 1 July, so every figure here carries its date for a reason, and an enterprise agreement overrides the award entirely. The market rates are two dated guides, not a survey.
Straight on. The hour your closer is mopping is an hour nobody is on the phone, and the bookings that ring in between 9pm and close are the ones that get missed. Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and takeaways in Australia and New Zealand, takes the booking or the order, and puts it where your team will see it, with setup taking about five days. If your phone mostly carries enquiries rather than bookings, a basic message-taking plan is the right buy and it is not us.
How much does restaurant cleaning cost in Australia?
There is no published Australian restaurant cleaning rate. Two dated 2026 cost guides put general contract commercial cleaning at about A$40 to A$65 an hour, and a small commercial kitchen deep clean at A$280 to A$560 a visit, typically about A$400. A venue sits at or above the top of that hourly band because the hours are unsociable and the soil is grease.
What is the minimum hourly rate for a cleaner in Australia?
Under the Cleaning Services Award MA000022, from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, a cleaning services employee level 1 is A$27.08 an hour full time and A$33.85 casual, rising to A$47.39 casual Saturday, A$60.93 casual Sunday and A$74.47 casual public holiday. Those are floors, not prices.
Why is a Sunday clean so much more expensive?
Because the award sets casual Saturday, Sunday and public holiday rates separately. Three hours of close down at the casual level 1 weekday rate is a wage floor of A$101.55. The same three hours on the casual Sunday rate is A$182.79, 80% more for identical work, decided only by when it is rostered.
How much does it cost to deep clean a restaurant kitchen?
A small commercial kitchen deep clean is priced per visit at about A$280 to A$560, typically around A$400, on an Australian cost guide whose prices were verified in October 2026. Priced by area instead, a deep or end of lease clean runs A$6 to A$12 a square metre.
Is it cheaper to clean a restaurant in house?
Not on the base rate, because at 1 July 2026 the MA000022 level 1 full time rate of A$27.08 is identical to the MA000119 level 2 rate your own staff sit on. It is cheaper in house if you close early on weekdays and the area is small. A contract is usually cheaper if you trade late or on weekends, once the penalty hours are priced honestly.
Does cleaning count in a restaurant's labour cost percentage?
If your own staff do it, yes, and it pushes your labour cost percentage up. If a contractor does it, the same money sits in overheads instead. The cash out is identical; which benchmark it lands in is not, which is worth knowing before you compare yourself to anyone.
How often should a commercial kitchen be deep cleaned?
Deep cleaning frequency is a risk judgement rather than a published interval, and it is separate from the exhaust canopy interval, which is driven by how heavily the kitchen cooks. Quarterly is the interval most small venues contract for. Put the interval and its price in the contract, because an unwritten quarterly degrease has a habit of becoming annual.