Domestic Housekeeper

A domestic housekeeper cleans and maintains residential properties, managing daily household tasks including vacuuming, dusting, laundry, and kitchen sanitation. They work independently or as part of a domestic service team, often following client preferences and household schedules to ensure homes remain hygienic and orderly.

Vacuum carpets and sweep hard floors using appropriate cleaning equipment and techniques. Dust furniture, shelves, windowsills, and decorative items without causing damage. Clean bathrooms including toilets, sinks, showers, and mirrors using suitable disinfectants. Wash, dry, iron, and fold laundry according to fabric care labels and client instructions. Clean kitchen surfaces, appliances, and stovetops using food-safe cleaning products. Change bed linens and make beds to hotel or client standard. Empty rubbish bins and dispose of waste appropriately including recyclables. Mop and clean hard floor surfaces using suitable floor cleaners.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

Your income depends heavily on how many clients you can manage and how much you charge. Most housekeepers work casual hours with no guaranteed weekly pay, so you're chasing bookings constantly. Physical wear on your knees, back, and hands is real over time. If you go solo, you're managing your own tax, insurance, and superannuation.

Some regional centres have demand in mining towns and holiday areas. Most work is local and in-person, though some agencies coordinate clients across wider areas. The reality is you need a market of people with disposable income nearby.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 8114, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Active Listeningcore
• Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Professional Boundaries Maintenancecore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Workload Self-Managementcore
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracy
• Clean household linens
• Clean rooms
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
• Customer Needs Assessment
• Incident Reporting
• Inventory Tracking
• Problem Solving
• Risk Identification

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Domestic Housekeeper workers move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026