---
title: "High-Rise Window Cleaner"
description: "Cleans the outside of skyscrapers and tall buildings while suspended from rope descent systems, bosun's chairs or motorized platforms."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-rise-window-cleaner"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# High-Rise Window Cleaner

**Category:** Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance · **SOC code:** 37-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 37-2011.00

Cleans the outside of skyscrapers and tall buildings while suspended from rope descent systems, bosun's chairs or motorized platforms.

Also advertised as: Skyscraper Window Cleaner; Commercial Window Cleaner; Rope Descent Window Cleaner; Swing Stage Window Washer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $36,840 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.71/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,640 to $50,270, with the middle half between $32,240 and $44,060
- **Total US employment:** 2,209,760
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 321,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 2,209,760 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,640 |
| 25th | $32,240 |
| 50th (median) | $36,840 |
| 75th | $44,060 |
| 90th | $50,270 |
| Mean (average) | $38,760 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $45,580 | $43,099 | 55,490 |
| WA | $45,520 | $42,537 | 47,380 |
| NY | $41,640 | $38,584 | 195,250 |
| CA | $41,090 | $37,112 | 234,240 |
| VT | $40,910 | $41,763 | 5,130 |
| AK | $40,510 | $39,576 | 5,200 |
| MN | $39,610 | $40,164 | 42,300 |
| OR | $39,340 | $38,061 | 25,890 |
| NH | $39,150 | $37,585 | 9,420 |
| ME | $38,940 | $40,124 | 9,180 |
| CO | $38,600 | $37,457 | 34,220 |
| DC | $38,520 | $35,050 | 16,400 |
| NV | $38,420 | $38,428 | 32,830 |
| CT | $37,960 | $36,637 | 28,740 |
| IL | $37,810 | $37,826 | 93,760 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-rise-window-cleaner/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/high-rise-window-cleaner.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,432,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 2,486,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 53,600 jobs, or +2.2%. Slower than average: 2.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 321,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 62.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 23.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 13.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect roof anchors, ropes and harnesses before each drop
- Rig rope descent systems, bosun's chairs or swing stages
- Descend building faces while cleaning glass and frames
- Clean metal panels, signage and facade surfaces
- Monitor wind and weather and stop work when unsafe
- Set up ground-level barricades to protect pedestrians
- Practice rescue procedures with the crew
- Report facade damage or failed sealant to building managers

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Trunk Strength — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.73 |
| C — Conventional | 5.07 |
| S — Social | 2.11 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.67 |
| I — Investigative | 1.15 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 86.4 |
| ISFJ | 80.2 |
| ESTJ | 77.5 |
| ISTP | 67.0 |
| ESFJ | 64.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Janitor and Cleaner, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners](https://nuecareer.com/careers/janitor-and-cleaner) — median $36,840
- [Maid and Housekeeping Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maid-and-housekeeping-cleaner) — median $35,510
- [Cleaner of Vehicles and Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaner-of-vehicles-and-equipment) — median $35,830
- [Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laundry-and-dry-cleaning-worker) — median $34,890
- [Septic Tank Servicer and Sewer Pipe Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/septic-tank-servicer-and-sewer-pipe-cleaner) — median $49,880
- [Dishwasher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dishwasher) — median $34,810
- [Recycling and Reclamation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recycling-and-reclamation-worker) — median $40,240
- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590
- [Floor Sander and Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/floor-sander-and-finisher) — median $50,440
- [Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaning-washing-and-metal-pickling-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $43,530

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/high-rise-window-cleaner