California House Cleaning & Domestic Worker Statistics (2026)

Key Takeaways

• House cleaners in California earn a median $20.51 an hour ($42,660 a year) — 20% above the U.S. median of $17.07 ($35,510). BLS, May 2025.
• The U.S. employs 860,670 maids and housekeeping cleaners; California employs 103,430, the most of any state. BLS, May 2025.
• In the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metro, the median cleaner wage is $18.05 an hour; the top 10% earn more than $60,160 a year. BLS, May 2025.
• An estimated 2 million California households — 16% — employ domestic workers, and 54% of them hire for housecleaning. UCLA Labor Center.
• 73% of California households that hire domestic help found the worker through friends and family; 51% set pay and hours without consulting any source. UCLA Labor Center.
• California has roughly 324,829 employed domestic workers; 34% work in Los Angeles, and 87% of house cleaners are Latina or Latino. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.
• California’s minimum wage is $16.90 (January 1, 2026); the City of Los Angeles is $18.42 (July 1, 2026). DIR; City of LA.
• A live-out house cleaner employed directly by a household earns overtime after 8 hours a day or 40 a week, and double time after 12 hours. DIR, Wage Order 15.
• A household becomes a California employer at $750 in cash wages in a quarter, and owes federal Social Security and Medicare tax at $3,000 a year (2026). EDD; IRS.
• Provider-posted starting rates on Care.com average $23.90/hour in California and $26.29/hour in Thousand Oaks (June 2026), against a U.S. average of $21.23.
• A California landlord may deduct cleaning from a deposit only to restore move-in cleanliness, must itemize within 21 days, and since April 1, 2025 must photograph the unit before and after. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• Los Angeles County has 3,416,449 households and a 45.9% owner-occupancy rate; Ventura County has 280,360 households and 64.6%. U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024.

What Do House Cleaners Earn in California and Los Angeles?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks house cleaners under occupation 37-2012, “Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners,” which also includes hotel and hospital housekeepers and excludes the self-employed. The May 2025 release is the latest.

Sources: BLS OEWS national table, May 2025; BLS OEWS California, May 2025; BLS OEWS Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura, May 2025. National mean wage $17.83/hour ($37,080/year). California’s 10th-percentile annual wage is $35,680, so the bottom of the California distribution sits above the U.S. median.

• The Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim metro employed 30,750 maids and housekeeping cleaners at a mean of $20.18/hour ($41,980/year) — the second-largest metro count in the country after New York. BLS OEWS, May 2023.
• Nationally, 397,640 of these workers (about 46%) are in hotels and other traveler accommodation; 83,040 work for “services to buildings and dwellings,” the industry that includes residential cleaning companies, at a mean of $16.59/hour. BLS OEWS, May 2023.
• First-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers in the Los Angeles metro number 5,190 and earn a median $61,270 ($29.46/hour), 25% above the U.S. median for the role. BLS OEWS Los Angeles metro, May 2025.
• The broader group of janitors and building cleaners held about 2.4 million U.S. jobs in 2025 at a median $17.71/hour, with employment projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, slower than average. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
• BLS wage estimates are employer-reported and exclude self-employed cleaners and workers hired directly by private households, so they describe the employee benchmark, not the independent-cleaner rate — which is why the provider-posted rates further down run higher.

Who Does Domestic Work in California?

The UCLA Labor Center’s 2022 Profile of Domestic Workers in California, built from American Community Survey data, is the most detailed public count of the state’s house cleaners, nannies, and homecare attendants.

• California has an estimated 324,829 employed domestic workers; the report notes government statistics most likely undercount the sector. 34% work in Los Angeles. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.
• By occupation: 64% are homecare attendants, 26% housecleaning workers, and 10% childcare providers. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.
• 87% of California house cleaners are Latinx (versus 51% of all domestic workers and 37% of all other workers); 66% of house cleaners are foreign-born. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.
• 80% of domestic workers work year-round (47 or more weeks); about half work full-time; 77% are low-wage earners. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.
• In 2018, three-quarters of California’s domestic workers were Latinx, Asian American/Pacific Islander, or Black women. UCLA Labor Center, 2022.

Who Hires Domestic Help in California, and How?

The UCLA Labor Center’s Profile, Practices and Needs of California’s Domestic Work Employers (501 randomly dialed phone surveys) is the only comprehensive study of the households on the other side of the arrangement.

• An estimated 2 million households — 16% of California households — employ domestic workers. UCLA Labor Center.
• Of those employers, 54% hire for housecleaning, 27% for homecare support, and 19% for childcare; excluding households receiving state-funded IHSS care, housecleaning rises to 60%. UCLA Labor Center; UCLA employer brief.
• 73% found their worker through their own friends and family. UCLA employer brief.
• 58% hire for a few hours a month, seasonally, or on call rather than on a fixed schedule. UCLA employer brief.
• 51% consulted no source when setting pay, hours, and benefits; 77% do not pay an hourly rate. UCLA employer brief.
• 10% of employers hire live-in workers and 6% require 24-hour care. UCLA Labor Center.
• Many housecleaning employers sit in the moderate- and high-income brackets, while many homecare and nanny employers have low incomes; over half of employers identify as white and 43% as Latino, African American, Asian American, or mixed race. UCLA employer brief.

What Do Households Pay for House Cleaning?

Two kinds of price data exist: rates posted by individual providers on marketplaces, and prices published by companies. The first is what Care.com reports from its listings; the second is scarce enough that Maid VIP built a separate price transparency report to count it.

Sources: Care.com, Newbury Park cost guide; Care.com, Manhattan Beach cost guide. Figures are averages of rates posted by providers listed on Care.com, last updated June 2026; they are individual-cleaner asking rates, not company prices.

• Care.com’s housekeeping category (broader than house cleaning) shows Simi Valley at $27.18/hr, Ventura at $26.45/hr, Oxnard at $24.53/hr, Camarillo at $20.50/hr, and Sherman Oaks at $24.83/hr starting. Care.com, Oxnard; Care.com, Sherman Oaks.
• Thousand Oaks’ posted starting rate is 24% above the U.S. average and 10% above California’s, per Care.com’s own comparison.
• Company pricing is a different market: a two-person crew in the 805 typically bills $60–$100 an hour, and most companies quote hourly rather than flat. Maid VIP, hourly vs. flat-rate guide.
• Of the Los Angeles and Ventura County cleaning companies surveyed for Maid VIP’s 2026 report, only a small minority publish prices at all; the report counts them and lists Maid VIP’s own in full. Price Transparency Report, 2026.

What Does California Law Require When You Pay a House Cleaner?

The rules differ depending on whether the cleaner is your employee, an independent professional, or a company’s employee. These are the thresholds that apply when a household pays a worker directly.

• A “personal attendant” is a worker who spends at least 80% of their time supervising, feeding, or dressing a child or a person who needs supervision; a worker doing more than 20% housecleaning is not a personal attendant and gets the standard 8/40 overtime. DIR FAQ.
• The 2026 FICA threshold rose $200 from 2025’s $2,800; it is indexed annually to the national average wage. IRS Publication 926.
• A domestic referral agency is defined by Civil Code §1812.5095: it refers domestic workers to clients and is not the worker’s employer when statutory conditions are met — the workers set their own rates, control the work, and may work for others. California Civil Code §1812.5095; how that applies in practice is in the referral-agency explainer.

What Can a California Landlord Deduct for Cleaning?

• Civil Code §1950.5 permits deposit deductions for cleaning only to return the unit to the level of cleanliness it had at the start of the tenancy, never for ordinary wear and tear. Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• The landlord must send an itemized statement and the balance within 21 days of move-out, with receipts for any deduction over $125. Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• For tenancies ending on or after April 1, 2025, the landlord must photograph the unit before and after any cleaning or repair charged to the deposit, and for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025, at move-in as well (AB 2801). Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• Professional cleaning may be charged only when reasonably necessary to restore move-in condition — an automatic cleaning fee in a lease is not enforceable on its own (AB 2801). Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• Bad-faith retention exposes a landlord to statutory damages of up to twice the deposit. Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• Since July 1, 2024, security deposits are generally capped at one month’s rent, with a limited exception for small landlords (AB 12). Cal. Civ. Code §1950.5.
• Small claims court hears deposit disputes up to $12,500 for individuals and $6,250 for businesses (limits raised January 1, 2024); filing fees run $30–$100. California Courts Self-Help.

Housing and Households in Los Angeles and Ventura County

Sources: Census QuickFacts, Los Angeles County; Census QuickFacts, Ventura County. Multi-year figures are 2020–2024 American Community Survey estimates.

• Ventura County’s owner-occupancy rate is 18.7 points higher than Los Angeles County’s, which is the single largest structural difference between the two markets for recurring residential cleaning.
• One in five Ventura County residents is 65 or older, versus roughly one in six in Los Angeles County — the population most likely to buy recurring housekeeping and senior-care support.

How Much Do U.S. Households Spend on the Home?

• Average annual expenditures for all U.S. consumer units were $78,535 in 2024, up 1.8% from 2023, on average pre-tax income of $104,207. BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024.
• Housing is the largest category at $26,266 a year (33.4%) — $2,189 a month; housing and transportation together are half of all spending. BLS, The Economics Daily.
• Households spent an average of $877 on housekeeping supplies in 2024, up from $818 in 2023. BLS via FRED, series CXUHKPGSUPPLB0101M.
• There were 135.76 million consumer units in 2024, averaging 2.4 people; the highest income quintile spent $150,342 against $35,046 for the lowest. BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024.

Maid VIP First-Party Data

These are Maid VIP’s own published figures, included so the page can be cited for a full local price stack. They are company data, not survey data, and are labeled as such.

• Published recurring-cleaning prices, standard tier, September 2026: $250–$300 under 1,500 sq ft; $300–$450 for 1,500–2,500; $450–$650 for 2,500–4,000; $650+ or $320 per professional per day for estates. Deep and move-out cleaning from $450; upholstery from $75 a piece with a $150 visit minimum.
• Every referred professional passes an interview, reference check, and background screening, with general-liability insurance verified before the first visit and re-confirmed after; 200+ background checks since 2014. Vetting methodology.
• Rated 4.6 of 5 across 82 Google reviews on the Thousand Oaks headquarters profile; seven offices across Los Angeles and Ventura County. Reviews.

Sources and Methodology

Every statistic on this page traces to the entity that produced it — a government agency, a university research center, a statute, or a platform reporting its own data — and each number appears once. Secondary roundups were not used. Where a figure is a company’s own data (Care.com listings, Maid VIP prices) it is labeled as such. Where BLS metro and state figures are quoted, they are the May 2025 OEWS release published May 2026; the Los Angeles metro occupation figure is the May 2023 release because the May 2025 metro profile for that occupation had not been re-published at the time of writing. Dates are the publisher’s. This page was compiled September 14, 2026, and is reviewed when BLS publishes the next OEWS release (spring) and when California’s minimum wage and the IRS household-employee threshold change (January).

Citing This Page

Download: the same report as a PDF — Maid VIP — California House Cleaning & Domestic Worker Statistics (2026) (PDF, 11 pages). This web page is the canonical, kept-current version.

The statistics here are drawn from public sources and may be cited freely; Maid VIP’s compilation and its own figures are released under CC BY 4.0, with attribution and a link to this page. Suggested citation:

Szetela, C., & Maid VIP LLC (2026). California House Cleaning & Domestic Worker Statistics (2026). Thousand Oaks, CA: Maid VIP LLC. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22850927

DOI issued via Zenodo (CERN). The web page remains the kept-current version; the DOI points to the archived PDF edition.

Corrections and data inquiries: contact@maidvip.com or (805) 380-5586. If a figure has been superseded by its publisher, tell us and it will be updated with the new date. Maid VIP is a California domestic referral agency headquartered in Thousand Oaks; nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.