A janitor, also known as a custodian, porter, cleanser, cleaner or caretaker, is a person who cleans and maintains buildings.
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In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A similar position, but usually with more managerial duties and not including cleaning, is occupied by building superintendents in the United States and Canada and by site managers in schools in the United Kingdom. Cleaning is one of the most commonly outsourced services.
The word janitor derives from the Latin "ianitor", meaning doorkeeper or porter, itself from "ianua", meaning door, entrance or gate. This derives from "Janus", the Roman god of doors, gates and portals.
Its first recorded use meaning "caretaker of a building, man employed to see that rooms are kept clean" was in 1708.
Most of the work performed by janitors and building cleaners is indoors. Office and school buildings are usually cleaned when they are vacant, so most of the office janitorial staff work during the evening. The work can be physically taxing and sometimes dirty and unpleasant. General janitor duties often include the following tasks:
In 2010, the median pay of a janitor working in the US was $10.68 per hour. The yearly salary could grow by 11% according to the statistics of 2010.
Office cleaning staff perform many of the same duties as janitors. However the tasks are divided among different members. Additional tasks include:
Cleaning is one of the most commonly outsourced services. Some of the reasons for this include:
Between 17% and 23% of the total undocumented immigrant population living in the United States work in the cleaning industry (and growing at a rate of 1/2% to 1/3% percent per year). In addition to this population offering an abundant source of inexpensive labor, janitorial work is mostly undertaken at night, making it an appealing option for janitorial companies to employ undocumented workers seeking clandestine employment.
In the Netherlands, the number of cleaning companies grew from 5,000 in 2003 to 8,000 in 2008.
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