Clean for Good: Providing a Living Pension in the cleaning industry

Clean for Good is a commercial cleaning business founded in 2017. Based in East London, it employs 85 cleaners and operates across 61 sites in the capital. Clean for Good have always been a Living Wage Employer and are passionate about ensuring their staff are paid fairly and treated with respect and dignity at work. They are also on a long-term mission is to promote change across the cleaning sector and are at the forefront of driving up employment standards, most recently becoming the first cleaning company in the UK to sign up to the Living Pension accreditation.

Managing Director Charlie Walker explains that signing up to provide a Living Pension to all workers at the company seemed like a logical step, building on the foundations of the real Living Wage:

"It felt like a really natural evolution from being a Living Wage Employer. Our starting story is that Clean for Good was founded after a church conducted a listening survey – they found that cleaners they spoke to talked about receiving poor pay and experiencing a lack of dignity in the workplace. Clean for Good was created as a company that would address low pay and poor conditions, so Living Pension felt like a really great next step for us. The Resolution Foundation did a compelling piece of research that found only 1 in 20 low-paid workers were saving enough to meet their needs in retirement. Clean for Good thought about how we could address this, and became interested in Living Pension. 

Clean for Good has a vision of changing the cleaning sector more widely, as well as providing fair pay and good work for our own staff. We want to demonstrate that you can pay your staff well and provide them with decent pensions, while still being a sustainable business."

Charlie says communication was key to implementing the Living Pension effectively:

"We had lots of conversations with the Living Wage Foundation which were really helpful, as well as discussing this with our staff, clients and board. Once we’d decided to move forward, we communicated this as much as possible with our staff, in order to explain what they had to do to opt-in to Living Pension contributions. 

Internally, there was a cost impact on our wage bill, but our board understood this. Our clients’ response was also really encouraging, and Clean for Good being a Living Pension employer has further enhanced the social impact of their supply chains. 

We produced a really simple form for our employees to make the opt-in process as easy as possible for staff, and new employees are enrolled in the Living Pension-level scheme automatically."

He goes on to say that implementing the accreditation is not without challenges:

"The increase to our pension contributions is a direct cost on the wage bill, which feels risky, but actually part of our ethos is to pioneer new standards in the UK cleaning sector. 

Pensions is also a very complicated area to discuss, so part of the challenge is ensuring communication is clear – this is an ongoing process and we’re always looking to refine the way we talk about pensions."

Charlie is clear that he sees the Living Pension as an investment in his staff, with many benefits coming from being accredited:

"For our staff the direct benefit is big – and this accreditation validates both the work they do and cleaning as a good career. 

We believe that Living Pension will help us retain our staff, and as the first Living Pension cleaning company we really stand out in the sector. We're showing that supporting our employees' retirement is both the right thing to do and financially achievable — with the goal of helping to transform the way cleaning work is valued and delivered. 

It also has a significant impact for our clients because through our accreditation we can enhance their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)  credentials, simply by choosing Clean For Good as their cleaning supplier 

Lastly, it adds to our story, and so is good for our marketing. We can talk about this on our website, socials and across our networks."

Charlie urges other cleaning companies to follow their example and sign up to the Living Pension:

"There are plenty of organisations in other sectors where high pension contributions are the norm, and cleaning companies should make every effort as well. It’s the right thing to do – do it!"

Andressa, an employee and a Cleaning Supervisor at Clean for Good, explains that she hadn't really thought about her pension savings before her employer signed up to provide a Living Pension:

"I'd never thought about pensions. Being an immigrant in this country, we don't know much about the local laws or how things work. We just know we need to work because we have bills to pay. 

Prior to accreditation, I only knew about pensions from my pay slip – I didn't understand exactly how it worked. My manager clarified for me that we were paying 3% and Clean for Good were contributing 5% before the accreditation. And then this year (2025) Charlie sent us an email that Clean for Good was offering a Living Pension, and I just decided to make the switch."

Andressa goes on to say that Clean for Good's commitment to ensuring she can live a decent life in retirement meant a lot to her:

"It made me feel valued. It's good to see that my employer is worrying about their employees. I was already contributing 3% and Clean for Good was contributing 5%. Then with a Living Pension, I had to contribute 4% and Clean for Good would contribute 8%. I’m just going to be paying one percent more, which is fair. But the company will be paying 8%, which is twice what I will be paying. When I saw that they are willing to pay more - it's such a valuable thing, because they don't need to do it. But they care about us."

On opting into the Living Pension scheme at Clean for Good, she says it was a prudent decision:

"As an immigrant, it’s tempting to say maybe I’ll go back home so there is no reason to sign up for a Living Pension. But my kids and I - we're building our lives here. I'm likely going to have my future here so I need to make decisions about my future based on what I know and where I am now. I don't want to work until I'm 100 years old. 

Especially with us cleaners, I feel like we're just worried about the present moment. But savings are not for the present. You need to think about your future because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. So if I can be saving now, I will do it, because it's safe for me to think about my tomorrow and my kids tomorrow. This will have a good effect on my future – giving me the opportunity of a good retirement where I won’t need to be working anymore and still have a good life."