OSHA reveals “days away from work” for house cleaners, janitors, and other service jobs.
According to data collected by the US Bureau of Labor in 2014, the average number of days an injured home cleaning technicians (or maid) will require off to recover from a work-related injury or illness is seven (7) working days.
The good news: of comparable home service industries (like plumbing, construction, landscaping, etc), cleaning technicians require the least number of days off, which may be attributed to strong safety training and protocols.
The bad news: the vast majority of cleaning companies do not plan for this expense in their annual budget for the loss in revenue or the overtime pay to another technician to cover the scheduled jobs.
How can you better plan for your cash flow?
1. Calculate your average revenue per employee. If you are a M-F operation (5 days a week), divide the average revenue per employee by 261; if you are a Su-Sa operation (7 days a week), divide by 365.
2. Multiply the number of W-2s and 1099s you issued at the end of last year by 0.027. That’s the average number of employees you can expect to sustain a work-related injury or illness.
3. Multiply that by 7 – the average number of days those few injured technicians are expected to be unable to perform services you’ve schedule.
The resulting figure is the revenue you would expect to lose if you are not able to cover the jobs an injured technician can’t perform while recovering.
It is important to factor in expected losses when data is available. This helps business owners create contingency-based budgets and avoid cash flow shortfalls due to unforeseen circumstances.
