{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/building-cleaning-workers-all-other/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Building Cleaning Workers, All Other",
    "soc_code": "37-2019",
    "category": "Facilities",
    "us_employment": 17210,
    "median_annual_wage": 44040
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 55,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 18,
    "embodiment": 19,
    "liability_shield": 4,
    "trust_premium": 8,
    "judgment_accountability": 6
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Sweeping a flue by feel, snaking a brush through offset ducts, rigging a swing stage for a 30-story glass face, or scraping cured grout and mortar off post-construction floors are all irregular-geometry hand tasks with no two jobs alike — an 18 rather than 20 only because route scheduling, quoting square footage, and the flat-open-warehouse floor scrubbing at the margins are already going to software and ride-on autoscrubbers.",
    "embodiment": "The work is ladders, roofs, crawlspaces, confined-space entries, pressure washers at 3,000+ psi, and respirators against creosote, mold, and bloodborne pathogens — uncontrolled environments in every sense, docked one point only because a slice of the category is interior mid-rise window work on solid footing.",
    "liability_shield": "No state licence gates the trade; a CSIA chimney sweep certification or an IICRC or OSHA 10 card helps you win bids and satisfy an insurer, but nothing stops an uncertified crew from underbidding you tomorrow — the 4 is those voluntary credentials, not legal protection.",
    "trust_premium": "Repeat chimney and dryer-vent customers call the sweep they trust inside their house annually and homeowners do ask for the same pressure-washing crew, but commercial and GC work is awarded on the low bid to whoever the property manager's system dispatches, which caps this at 8 instead of the low teens.",
    "judgment_accountability": "Calls like whether a flue liner is cracked enough to condemn or which chemical to use on a stained façade are real but bounded by manufacturer specs, NFPA 211, and a supervisor's sign-off on the scope — you flag the problem, the customer or the GC decides, which is a 6 rather than discretionary authority."
  },
  "rationale": "This catch-all covers specialty cleaning work — chimney sweeping, duct and vent cleaning, pressure washing, high-rise window and exterior work, post-construction and biohazard cleanup — performed by hand in cramped, dirty, variable spaces that no current robot navigates. Language AI touches almost none of it; the exposure here is scheduling, quoting, and dispatch getting absorbed by software, plus commercial floor-scrubbing robots nibbling at the flat-open-space end. The score is middling not because the labor is automatable but because there is no license, no signature, and little client relationship protecting the wage.",
  "outlook": "Demand holds through 2035 — buildings keep getting dirty in ways robots can't reach — but pay stays soft unless you hold a specialty certification that makes your inspection report the billable product.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State-level licensing/certification mandates for specific specialty niches already exist in fragments and could spread: chimney sweeps (CSIA certification is voluntary; some jurisdictions like parts of NJ and CT tie hearth inspection sign-off to certified sweeps), NADCA ACR-certified air duct cleaning being written into commercial HVAC insurance and IAQ contracts, and trauma/biohazard cleanup requiring OSHA bloodborne-pathogen-trained supervisors plus state medical-waste transporter permits. If a state adopts a licensing act for biohazard remediation contractors (as several have proposed following mold-remediation licensing in FL, TX, LA), a named certified individual signs the clearance document and carries liability.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 6
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "High-rise exterior work: OSHA 1910.27/ANSI I-14.1 window cleaning safety standards and building-owner rooftop anchor certification requirements push toward a designated competent person who signs the fall-protection plan per job. If NY-style facade/suspended-scaffold licensing (NYC DOB requires licensed riggers and certificate holders) is adopted more broadly, the signing competent person becomes a legally required human role.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Post-loss and post-construction work increasingly gates on documented clearance decisions — passing an independent third-party verification, calling whether a duct system is contaminated per NADCA ACR, deciding whether a fire-damaged flue is condemnable. If insurers require a named technician's contamination/clearance determination to release payment (mirroring IICRC S500/S520 use in water and mold claims), the role owns a consequential ambiguous call.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Narrow route only: crime-scene/decomposition cleanup and occupied-home chimney work where discretion and presence in a distressed household are the purchase. Buyers pay a premium for a specific vetted, background-checked, insured named crew. This does not generalize to pressure washing or duct work, where the buyer is a procurement line item.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift is real here but small: if floor-scrubbing robots (Tennant/Brain, Avidbots) and dispatch software absorb the flat-open-area and quoting tier, what remains is confined-space, roof, and contaminated work. The score is already 18 so headroom is minimal.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 1
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Capability dimensions are already near maximum — the score of 55 is an institutional problem, not a technical one. Realistic ceiling is roughly 70, and only for the licensed/certified niches (biohazard, high-rise facade, certified chimney/duct). The pressure-washing and general specialty-cleaning bulk of this SOC has no plausible route to a licensing regime or a trust premium, and wage protection there depends on labor supply and OSHA enforcement, not on AI resistance."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 14970,
        "wage": 29060
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 13650,
        "wage": 29260
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 18150,
        "wage": 31230
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 17050,
        "wage": 34510
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 17350,
        "wage": 34350
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 15630,
        "wage": 37200
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 13740,
        "wage": 39900
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 16370,
        "wage": 42360
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 17210,
        "wage": 44040
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 15,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}