Cleaning companies will come under a compulsory licensing scheme in September where they have to pay cleaners wages according to a tiered structure negotiated with unions.

The Government will introduce a new law in Parliament this month where cleaning firms that do not comply with the wage guidelines in the cleaning sector will be punished, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Wednesday.

Once passed and implemented, the new law will ensure that cleaners earn at least $1,000 a month, while supervisors can earn at least $1,600. Some 55,000 cleaners whose median basic monthly pay is $820 now stand to gain from the move.

Besides the cleaning sector, the Government will also implement a similar licensing scheme to the security sector. These moves are targeted approaches to use industry licensing schemes to raise wages in the cleaning and security sectors and is not a national minimum wage, said Mr Tharman.