Laundry Attendant Job Description: Duties, Responsibilities, Template & Pay (2026)
A laundry attendant runs the machines that keep a hotel, hospital, senior living building or care home operating — sorting, washing, drying, folding and delivering linen on a schedule nobody sees until it slips. This page has a laundry attendant job description template you can copy, what the work pays, and the two facts about the environment that an honest posting should state up front.
What a laundry attendant does
O*NET describes laundry and dry-cleaning workers as starting washers, dryers and extractors and regulating machine processes, sorting and inspecting garments before and after cleaning, spotting and removing stains with the appropriate solvents, and loading, unloading and finishing items by folding, pressing or hanging.
In an on-premises laundry — a hotel, hospital or care home — the day is a loop.
Sort and load. Receiving soiled linen, separating by type and soil level, handling contaminated or isolation linen per procedure, and loading to the right weight rather than the convenient one.
Process. Running the correct formula, dosing chemicals, managing the extractor and the dryers, and keeping several machines moving at once so nothing sits wet.
Finish. Folding to standard, ironing or pressing where required, checking for stains, tears and wear, and pulling anything that should not go back into service.
Distribute and account. Stocking floors, carts and departments, tracking par levels, and telling somebody before the building runs out of towels on a Saturday.
That last one is the part that makes the job matter. A hotel with no clean linen cannot check anybody in.
Laundry attendant job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for an on-premises hotel or healthcare laundry; the customization section covers commercial laundries, senior living, dry cleaning and coin-operated facilities.
Job title
Laundry Attendant [/ Laundry Aide / Linen Technician] — [Property or facility], [City, ST] — [Shift]
Summary
[Property name] is hiring a laundry attendant for our on-premises laundry at a [00]-room hotel / [00]-bed facility in [city]. You will process about [000] lbs of linen a day on [number] washers and [number] dryers, working with a team of [0]. Shift is [days and exact hours], [00] hours a week, [the same days every week]. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] an hour, paid [weekly]. [No experience needed — we train in a week. The laundry is [air-conditioned / ventilated and hot in summer]; we are telling you that up front.]
Responsibilities
- Sort soiled linen by type and soil level; handle [contaminated and isolation] linen per procedure
- Load washers to correct weight and run the right formula for each load
- Dose and monitor chemicals safely; report any dispenser fault immediately
- Operate dryers and extractors; keep machines cycling so nothing sits wet
- Fold, press and finish linen to the property's standard
- Inspect for stains, tears and wear; treat, rewash or remove from service as appropriate
- Stock carts, floors and departments to par and record what went out
- Track linen inventory and flag shortages before they affect [rooms / units]
- Keep the laundry, lint traps, drains and floors clean and safe
Requirements
- Able to work [the exact shift], including [weekends and holidays]
- Able to stand, walk, bend and reach for a full shift and lift [40] lbs
- Able to work in a warm, humid environment
- Able to follow written procedures and chemical labels in [English/Spanish]
- [Able to pass a background check — required for our [healthcare / senior living] site]
Preferred
- Previous laundry, housekeeping, warehouse or production experience
- [Bloodborne pathogen training — we provide it]
- Commercial laundry equipment experience
- [Spanish and English]
Pay and benefits
- [$00.00–$00.00] an hour, paid [weekly], reviewed at [90] days
- [Set schedule, the same days every week; no on-call]
- [Health, dental and vision at [00] hours a week], [401(k) with match], [PTO and paid holidays]
- [Meal on shift], [uniforms provided], [employee or hotel discount programme]
- [Path into housekeeping, housekeeping supervisor or maintenance — we promote internally]
How to apply
[Apply here / text LAUNDRY to 00000 / come in and ask for [name]]. We reply within [24] hours and can usually start you within the week.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
This role competes with every entry-level hourly job in the area at a similar rate, and it has one disadvantage the others do not: the room is hot. Pretending otherwise produces a hire who leaves in week two, which is the most expensive outcome available.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Experience | Not needed. O*NET reports 74% of employers requiring a high school diploma or equivalent, and the training is about a week. Requiring experience filters the pool for nothing. |
| The environment | State it. On-premises laundries are warm and humid, and in summer they are hot. Candidates find this out on day one either way; saying it in the posting costs you applications you were going to lose anyway and keeps the ones who can handle it. |
| Physical requirements | Concrete: standing, walking, bending, reaching, pushing loaded carts, lifting wet linen. Wet linen is heavier than people expect and worth naming. |
| Language | Frequently listed as English fluency and frequently unnecessary. If procedures and chemical labels are bilingual, say so and run the advertisement in both languages — this is one of the most Spanish-speaking workforces in frontline hiring. |
| Background check | Standard in healthcare and senior living sites. Name it and say what it involves. |
| Bloodborne pathogen training | Required in healthcare settings and provided by the employer. Say you provide it rather than listing it as a requirement. |
| Availability | Be exact about the shift and whether the days are fixed. A stable schedule is this job's strongest competitive feature against warehouse and food service, and it is usually buried. |
Laundry attendant duties, written for a posting
Give the scale and the equipment. Pounds a day, number of washers and dryers, whether there is an ironer or folder, team size, and whether the attendant also delivers to floors. An experienced laundry worker reads those and knows whether the workload is realistic.
Say whether the role is laundry only or laundry plus housekeeping cover. Combined roles are common and legitimate; discovering the combination after starting is not. If the attendant covers rooms when housekeeping is short, say how often.
Keep the list to eight or nine lines, ordered by how much of the shift each takes, and include the inventory and par-level work — it is the part of the job with judgement in it and the part that leads somewhere.
How to customize it by setting
Hotel on-premises laundry
Say the room count, the volume, the equipment and the shift. Lead with the schedule stability and the hotel discount programme. If the laundry is air-conditioned, that is a genuine advantage over most of the sector — say it.
Healthcare and hospital laundry
Isolation and contaminated linen handling, infection-control procedure, regulated waste and audit requirements. Say what training you provide. Pay and benefits are usually better than hotel laundry and the schedule steadier — both are worth leading with.
Senior living and long-term care
Personal laundry as well as linen, resident belongings labelled and returned correctly, and a relational element that hotel laundry does not have. Losing a resident's clothing is a real problem; say how the labelling system works, because it signals a well-run operation.
Commercial and industrial laundry
Higher volume, production rates, tunnel washers and conveyors, and shift work. This is closer to a production job than a hospitality one — say the rate expectation, the shift pattern and the differential.
Dry cleaning
A different skill set: solvents, spotting, pressing and garment care, plus customer interaction at the counter. Say which parts the role covers, because a presser and a counter attendant are different jobs.
What it costs to reach laundry attendants on social
Hourly customer-facing roles are the cheapest audience in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark: across 181 retail and corporate campaigns the median cost per applicant was $8.58, with a volume-blended figure of $3.66 and a 26% apply rate — the highest of any sector. Across all 891 managed campaigns the median was $13.88 and the cheapest decile $2.91.
At those numbers the media cost is almost never what stops the role being filled. Across the benchmark, campaigns converting over 20% of clicks paid a median $4.41 an applicant and those under 10% paid $53.77 — a twelvefold difference driven by the posting and the application form, not the auction. Three questions on the form and a same-day callback is the whole optimisation. Running the advertisement in Spanish as well as English is the largest single change most employers could make for this role.
Staffing the department? See the housekeeper, housekeeping supervisor and dietary aide job descriptions, and how to hire housekeepers and janitorial staff for the hiring side.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone by somebody who has other options at a similar rate. It needs the rate, the exact shift and whether the days are fixed, that no experience is needed, and an honest word about the environment — in the first three lines. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words, and for a role like this the shorter end works.
Three or four questions on the form, then call the same day. Every extra field costs completions, and the attendant you want has applied somewhere else this morning.
What laundry attendants earn
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a median of $16.78 an hour, $34,890 a year in 2025, across about 202,600 people with roughly 31,900 openings a year and 5–6% projected growth — faster than average.
| Comparison role | Median pay (2025) | Openings per year |
|---|---|---|
| Housekeeping and janitorial supervisors | $23.61/hr · $49,100 | ~33,000 |
| Janitors and building cleaners | $17.71/hr · $36,840 | ~321,800 |
| Stockers and order fillers | $17.95/hr · $37,330 | ~472,300 |
| Laundry and dry-cleaning workers | $16.78/hr · $34,890 | ~31,900 |
| Dishwashers | $16.73/hr · $34,810 | ~76,800 |
Laundry sits near the bottom of that comparison, roughly a dollar below stocking and janitorial work. That is the honest competitive position, and it means the posting has to win on something other than the rate.
The three things available are the schedule, the building and the path. A fixed shift on the same days every week is worth real money to somebody arranging childcare or a second job. An air-conditioned laundry is a material improvement over the alternative. And the route into housekeeping, housekeeping supervision at $23.61 an hour, or maintenance is a genuine ladder that almost no laundry posting mentions. Name all three and the rate matters less.
Frequently asked questions
What does a laundry attendant do?
A laundry attendant sorts soiled linen by type and soil level, loads washers to the correct weight and runs the right formula, doses and monitors chemicals, operates dryers and extractors, folds and presses linen to standard, inspects for stains, tears and wear, stocks carts and departments to par, tracks linen inventory, and keeps the laundry area, lint traps and drains clean.
How much do laundry attendants make?
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a median of $16.78 an hour, or $34,890 a year, in 2025. That sits roughly a dollar below janitorial work at $17.71 and stocking at $17.95, which is why a laundry posting generally has to compete on schedule stability, the working environment and the promotion path rather than on rate.
What qualifications does a laundry attendant need?
None formally — O*NET reports 74% of employers requiring a high school diploma or equivalent, and training typically takes about a week. What the job needs is the physical capacity for a full shift on your feet in a warm environment, the ability to follow written procedures and chemical labels, and reliability. Healthcare sites usually add a background check and bloodborne pathogen training, which the employer provides.
Is laundry work physically demanding?
Yes, in a specific way. It involves standing, walking, bending, reaching and pushing loaded carts for a full shift, lifting wet linen that is heavier than it looks, and working in a warm and humid room that gets hot in summer. An honest description of that in the posting costs applications you would lose anyway on day one, and keeps the people who can do the work.
What should a laundry attendant job description include?
The volume in pounds a day, the number of washers and dryers and whether there is an ironer or folder, team size, whether the attendant delivers to floors or covers housekeeping, the exact shift and whether the days are fixed, the hourly rate, the physical demands including the temperature of the room, what training is provided, and the promotion path.
What is the difference between a laundry attendant and a housekeeper?
A laundry attendant processes linen — sorting, washing, drying, folding and distributing. A housekeeper cleans rooms or units. They are separate roles with separate skills, though in smaller properties one person may do both. If the job includes room cleaning, the posting should say how often rather than leaving it to be discovered.
Does laundry work lead anywhere?
It can, and saying so is one of the most useful things a posting can do. The common routes are into housekeeping, then housekeeping supervision at a $23.61 median — nearly seven dollars an hour above laundry — or into building maintenance. Naming that ladder, with the pay, gives a candidate a reason to choose this job over an equivalent hourly role elsewhere.
Why is it hard to hire laundry attendants?
Because the rate sits below comparable hourly work while the environment is hotter and the work physically harder, and because most postings are vague about both. The employers who fill reliably state the exact shift and that the days are fixed, describe the environment honestly, run the advertisement in Spanish as well as English, and name the route into housekeeping or supervision.
Other job description templates
Hiring laundry attendants?
The description is the document. Winning an hourly candidate when you are a dollar behind on rate is the job. That is what we run.
Wage, employment, projection and task descriptions for laundry and dry-cleaning workers (SOC 51-6011) and the comparison occupations: O*NET OnLine and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wage data and BLS employment projections. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.