Laundry Worker

A laundry worker operates industrial washing and drying equipment in commercial laundries, hospitals, hotels, or residential care facilities to clean, process, and prepare textiles for use or distribution. The role involves handling large volumes of soiled linen and garments, sorting by fabric type and contamination level, and ensuring items meet cleanliness and safety standards before dispatch. Work is physically demanding, repetitive, and often conducted in hot, humid environments with exposure to chemicals and noise.

Sort incoming soiled linen and garments by fabric type, colour, and level of contamination to determine appropriate wash cycles. Load industrial washing machines with pre-sorted textiles and select correct water temperature, detergent type, and cycle duration based on fabric requirements. Monitor industrial washers and dryers during operation to ensure cycles complete without equipment malfunction or safety incidents. Transfer wet textiles from washers to industrial dryers or centrifuges using manual handling techniques or mechanical lifting equipment. Inspect cleaned items for stains, damage, or foreign objects and remove items requiring specialist treatment or repair. Operate industrial pressing, ironing, or folding equipment to finish garments and linen to required standards. Stack, fold, and package clean linen into appropriate containers for distribution to wards, departments, or customers. Apply chemical treatments such as bleach, stain removers, or disinfectants according to product instructions and workplace safety procedures.

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.

The work is repetitive, physically demanding, and happens in hot, humid rooms full of chemical smells and noise all day. Your back and shoulders will hurt from lifting wet linen and operating machinery. Pay is low and unlikely to rise much even with experience. Automation of folding and sorting may reduce some of this work over time, which could affect long-term job security.

In practice, jobs are concentrated in capital cities and large regional centres where hospitals, aged care facilities, hotels, and commercial laundries operate. Most work is in-person and tied to those facilities, so remote work isn't an option. Private commercial laundries and hospital laundries are the main employers.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 8115, 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.

• Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracycore
• Clean household linenscore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Workflow Prioritisationcore
• Workload Self-Managementcore
• Active Listening
• Adapt production levels
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
• Inventory Tracking
• Process Improvement Identification
• Record Management

• 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 Laundry Worker move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 10 October 2026