49,500 applicants vie for MTA cleaning jobs starting at $20.89

New York City's most sought-after job isn't on Wall Street — it's underground, cleaning subway trains for near-minimum wage.

Nearly 49,500 people applied for MTA transit cleaner positions in February 2025, chasing a role that starts at $20.89 an hour — just $3.89 above the city's $17 minimum wage — for the promise of union benefits and a pension.

"I was kind of in shock," said Ronniece Jimenez, who waited nearly three years before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority called in January 2025 to say she was hired.

The MTA received nearly 49,500 applications when it last opened the position in February 2025, down from more than 75,000 over about eight weeks in 2022. The agency employs roughly 3,700 transit cleaners. Wages top out at $34.82 an hour after six years, translating to an annual range of $43,451 to $72,426 at full-time.

The job offers a rare foothold in New York's unionized public sector, where 65.6% of workers belong to a union versus 13.7% in the city's private sector, according to 2025 data. Cleaners pay minimal contributions toward medical, dental and vision coverage and receive a pension — benefits increasingly scarce across the broader economy.

The work itself is grueling. Cleaners encounter rude or mentally unstable passengers, human waste and vomit. Antonio Rogers, 71, a transit cleaner, said he finds a heavy piece of furniture abandoned on platforms at least once a month. "They leave everything," he said, adding that large items become hazardous if they reach the subway track.

For many workers, the cleaning role is a stepping stone. By passing a civil-service exam, cleaners can become station agents starting at $33.33 an hour, then station supervisors. The position also opens a path to train conductor, which starts at $26.70 an hour, and train operator, where hourly pay starts at $42.84 and increases to $43.72.

"You're building for the future," said Susiauh Bourdier, 33, who said raising a family on a transit-cleaning salary feels difficult in New York but that the MTA offers a career path. In her previous job as a mail handler, she worried about automation eliminating her position and paid about $400 each month for dental and medical coverage for herself and her daughter.

A Three-Year Wait for a Foot in the Door

Applicants receive a randomly assigned number that determines the order in which they are called back for drug and health tests. The 2025 applicant pool also faced a reading assessment test. Jimenez, who works an overnight shift at Grand Central starting at 10 p.m., said she mops escalator comb plates, empties trash bins and sweeps the No. 7 line platform. A separate crew handles powerwashing.

Jimenez, 28, said her father stressed the importance of a stable job with good benefits during her childhood; he worked for New York City's Housing Authority. The lesson hit home when the restaurant where she worked as a cook shut down during the pandemic. She found a job caring for disabled people at $17 an hour with inadequate benefits and no promotion path.

The transit-cleaning job allows her to provide for her 8-year-old twin daughters, whom her mother watches while Jimenez works nights. She still urges friends and cousins to apply for MTA jobs. Her next goal: enrolling in an MTA training program for elevator and escalator maintenance.

"I plan to move up," she said.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.