Turkey’s hospitals, shopping malls, office towers, airports, schools and government buildings are kept running every day by a huge workforce of cleaners. Most of them never appear in a job title anyone notices, yet without them a hospital ward could not stay sterile and a busy mall could not open its doors in the morning. Add the hotel housekeepers in the tourist regions and the many women who clean private homes by the day, and cleaning becomes one of the largest sources of work in the country.

The sector is divided into very different worlds. A cleaner employed by a facility services company in a city hospital has a contract, SGK registration and fixed shifts. A gündelikçi who cleans a different flat each day may be paid in cash with no paperwork at all. This guide explains how each part of the sector works, what cleaners typically earn in lira, how the 2018 transfer of public-sector subcontracted cleaners changed the market, how social security and work permits apply, and how to stay safe around strong chemicals.

Who Hires Cleaners in Turkey

Cleaning jobs come from four main types of employer, and each offers a different balance of security, pay and flexibility.

• Facility management companies: Firms that supply cleaning, security, catering and technical staff to client buildings under service contracts.
• Public institutions: Ministries, municipalities, state hospitals and universities, which now employ many cleaners directly as permanent workers.
• Hotels and resorts: Housekeeping departments that clean rooms, corridors, public areas and linen.
• Private households: Families who hire a cleaner by the day, by the week or as a live-in helper.

Facility Services: Cleaning Teams for Hospitals, Malls and Offices

Facility management, often called tesis yönetimi in Turkish, is the formal heart of the cleaning sector. Companies win contracts to keep a building clean, then recruit, train, uniform and supervise the cleaners. One firm might run teams in several hospitals, a dozen shopping centres and a business district at the same time.

Hospitals

Hospital cleaning is the most demanding and the most regulated. Staff clean wards, operating theatres, intensive care units and toilets to strict infection control rules, use colour-coded cloths and buckets for different zones, and handle medical waste bags carefully. Many hospitals also employ patient support staff who move beds and supplies, though caring for patients directly is a separate, regulated job.

Shopping Malls

Mall cleaners work in shifts that cover long opening hours. The early team scrubs floors with ride-on machines before the shops open, the day team keeps toilets, food courts and entrances tidy, and a late team does a deep clean after closing.

Offices and Business Towers

Office cleaning usually happens early in the morning or after working hours. Duties include emptying bins, vacuuming, wiping desks, cleaning kitchens and meeting rooms, and sometimes serving tea, which is a familiar extra task in Turkish workplaces.

Public Buildings and Transport Hubs

Courthouses, schools, metro stations and airports need cleaners around the clock. Big transport hubs such as Istanbul Airport employ large teams on rotating day and night shifts.

The 2018 Move From Subcontracting to Permanent Status

For many years, a large share of cleaners in state hospitals, ministries and municipalities were employed by private subcontractors on short service contracts. Each time a tender changed hands, workers risked losing seniority and rights.

That changed with Decree Law No. 696, issued under the state of emergency and published on 24 December 2017. It allowed eligible subcontracted workers in central government bodies to apply for permanent worker status, generally after a written or oral assessment, with municipalities able to move workers into their own companies. The transfer process was largely completed by early April 2018, and officials said at the time that it affected several hundred thousand people. Exact numbers and conditions differed by institution, so treat any single figure with care.

For job seekers today, the practical result is that many public-sector cleaning jobs are now permanent worker posts with collective agreements and better security than typical private contracts. New public vacancies are often announced through İŞKUR, and some institutions select applicants by a notary-supervised lottery, but procedures vary, so always read the official announcement carefully. Private buildings such as malls, offices and private hospitals continue to use facility management companies.

What Cleaners Earn in Turkish Lira

The 2026 national minimum wage, in force since 1 January, is ₺33,030 gross and ₺28,075.50 net per month. Most full-time cleaning jobs in the private sector pay at or near this figure. Permanent public-sector workers covered by collective agreements generally earn more, and supervisors receive a higher rate. Domestic cleaners are usually paid by the day.

Cleaning Role	Typical Pay (net)	Main Requirement
Office or mall cleaner (facility firm)	₺28,075 to ₺31,000 a month	Reliability, shift availability
Hospital cleaner (private firm)	₺28,075 to ₺33,000 a month	Infection control training
Hotel room attendant	₺28,075 to ₺34,000 a month	Speed, often with lodging
Floor machine operator	₺29,000 to ₺35,000 a month	Machine training
Public-sector permanent cleaner	₺32,000 to ₺42,000 a month	Official selection process
Cleaning team supervisor	₺34,000 to ₺45,000 a month	Experience leading staff
Domestic day cleaner (gündelikçi)	About ₺1,500 to ₺3,000+ a day	References, trust

Every amount shown is an estimate meant only for comparison; city, employer, collective agreements and inflation updates can move real pay well away from these ranges. This page shares career information and is neither a job posting nor a recruitment or immigration service of any kind. Check the actual terms with your employer and consult official sources, including the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (ÇSGB), İŞKUR and the Presidency of Migration Management.

Hotel Housekeeping: Rooms, Linen and Seasons

In coastal resort areas, housekeeping is one of the biggest hotel departments. Room attendants, called kat görevlisi, are usually given a set number of rooms per shift, often well over a dozen in large resorts, and must strip beds, clean bathrooms, restock amenities and report damage or lost property. Public area cleaners look after lobbies, pools and restaurants, while laundry staff wash, dry and press huge volumes of linen.

Resort jobs are often seasonal, running roughly from spring to autumn, and many include shared staff housing and meals. City hotels offer year-round jobs but usually no accommodation. Housekeepers who learn quality standards, room inspection and some English can move up to floor supervisor and eventually executive housekeeper.

Gündelikçi: Domestic Cleaning by the Day

A gündelikçi is a cleaner paid by the day, usually working in private homes. Many work for several families, visiting each one weekly or every two weeks. A typical visit covers the whole flat: floors, windows, kitchen, bathrooms, dusting and sometimes ironing. Daily rates depend heavily on the city and neighbourhood, with higher rates common in wealthy districts of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Travel money and lunch are often added on top.

The weakness of this work is that much of it is informal. Cash payment with no registration leaves the cleaner without health cover, pension days or protection after a work accident. Some cleaners now find clients through home services apps and agencies, which can bring more regular bookings, but check whether the platform registers workers or treats them as self-employed.

SGK Registration for Every Kind of Cleaner

Social security registration with SGK is mandatory in Turkey. Facility firms, hotels and public bodies must register cleaners from their first day, and workers can confirm their declared days and earnings on e-Devlet.

Domestic work has its own rules. Under the social security law, a household that employs a cleaner for fewer than 10 days a month can register the worker through a simplified procedure, and in that case cover is generally limited to work accidents and occupational diseases, with the worker able to top up premiums for fuller rights. Where the cleaner works 10 days or more a month for the same household, the employer is generally expected to register them for full coverage. Premium amounts change every year with the minimum wage, so check current figures with SGK. Even for a once-a-week cleaner, registration matters because a fall from a ladder or a chemical burn can happen in any home.

The Home Services Permit for Foreign Workers

Many foreign women work in Turkish homes, especially in big cities. Turkey has a specific work permit route for household services, where the family itself acts as the employer and applies to the Ministry through the online e-İzin system. If the worker is abroad, they first obtain a reference number at a Turkish consulate. Once granted, that permit also covers the worker’s right to reside in Turkey.

Official Ministry guidance for this route mainly describes care tasks, such as looking after elderly or disabled people, children or patients. Whether a role that is purely cleaning qualifies is less clear, so families and workers should check with the Ministry or a qualified adviser. Legal commentators report that the usual expectation of five Turkish employees per foreign worker is not applied to household employers, and that the family must show sufficient income and pay at least the minimum wage, but these conditions can change. Permits are generally granted for up to one year at first and can be extended.

For other cleaning jobs, such as office, mall or hotel work, foreign nationals need a standard employer-sponsored permit, and the five-to-one rule generally applies, with exemptions in some cases. Cleaning without one exposes the worker to fines and possible removal from Turkey. In practice, most cleaning jobs go to Turkish citizens, and sponsored foreign workers are mainly found in tourism, textiles and construction.

Chemical Safety: Bleach, Acids and Safe Mixing

Cleaning chemicals cause more injuries in this sector than most people expect. Turkish homes and workplaces commonly use bleach, limescale removers, strong degreasers and drain openers, and some combinations are dangerous.

• Never mix bleach with acid-based descalers or with ammonia products. The fumes can seriously damage the lungs.
• Wear gloves and, where needed, eye protection. Splashes of concentrated products can burn skin and eyes.
• Open windows or run ventilation when cleaning bathrooms or small rooms.
• Keep products in original labelled bottles, never in water or drink bottles.
• Read the safety data sheet that employers should keep for each product, and follow dilution instructions.
• In hospitals, never put hands into waste bags and report needlestick injuries immediately.

Employers are required under occupational health and safety rules to train workers, provide protective equipment and assess risks. If you are given unlabelled chemicals or no gloves, raise it with your supervisor.

Hours, Overtime and Night Cleaning

For cleaners, as for other employees under Labour Law No. 4857, the normal week is capped at 45 hours. Overtime beyond that is paid at 50% extra, and the annual overtime total is generally capped at 270 hours. Cleaners in malls, hospitals and airports often work rotating shifts, including nights and weekends, and are entitled to at least 24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest. Annual paid leave starts at 14 days after one year, and severance pay generally becomes due after at least one year of service when a contract ends on qualifying grounds.

Training and Equipment Skills That Raise Pay

Cleaners who can operate scrubber-dryers, carpet extractors and high-pressure washers are more useful to facility firms and are more likely to become team leaders. Hospital cleaners benefit from infection control courses. İŞKUR offers free vocational courses and on-the-job training programmes, some of which include cleaning and housekeeping. Vocational qualification standards from MYK exist for certain cleaning roles, and MYK certificates are mandatory for a number of hazardous occupations, so ask whether your type of work is covered.

Offers to Avoid in the Cleaning Sector

Cleaning jobs are often used in fake overseas adverts that promise housekeeping jobs in Turkey with high pay, free visas and flights in exchange for an upfront fee. A real employer will never ask a cleaner to pay for a position. Inside Turkey, be careful with anyone who wants to hold your passport, refuses to register you with SGK or asks you to work without a permit.

A Clean Path Into Steady Work

Cleaning work in Turkey ranges from secure permanent posts in public buildings to informal daily work in private homes. The sector rarely demands formal qualifications, but it does reward reliability, careful work and a good knowledge of chemicals and equipment. Choose employers that register you with SGK, keep your safety equipment on, and use training to move into machine work, supervision or hotel housekeeping management.

Mop and Bucket: Common Questions on Turkish Cleaning Work

Are public hospital cleaners in Turkey still employed by subcontractors?

In many central government bodies, eligible subcontracted cleaners moved to permanent worker status in 2018 under Decree Law No. 696. Private hospitals and malls still commonly use facility management firms.

Does a family have to register a weekly cleaner with SGK?

Generally yes. Even part-time domestic work should be registered, and a simplified procedure exists for cleaners who work fewer than 10 days a month for the same household.

Can a foreign national legally clean homes in Turkey?

Only with a work permit. A household services permit route exists, but official guidance focuses on care tasks, so check eligibility for cleaning-only work with the Ministry first.