How are office cleaning prices set?
Office cleaning prices are set from the labor hours a building takes, priced with payroll costs, supplies, overhead and profit, and quoted as a monthly fee. There is no reliable national price list, because wages, building layouts and scopes vary too much.
Commercial cleaning prices are usually presented in one of three ways:
| Model | How it works | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Flat monthly price | One fixed fee for an agreed scope and schedule | Recurring accounts; what most clients expect |
| Per hour | The client pays for each labor hour worked | Day porters, one-off jobs, or a scope that changes every week |
| Per square foot | A rate times the cleanable area | Comparing bids and checking your math; risky as the only method |
The best approach uses all three: calculate from hours, present a monthly price, and check the price per square foot against your other accounts. Two 10,000 square foot buildings can take very different time, so a per-square-foot number alone can win you a job that loses money.
If you clean homes too, residential pricing works differently, by home size and type of clean. See the house cleaning pricing guide for that side.
Commercial cleaning rates per hour
Your billing rate per labor hour is your wage, plus payroll burden, plus supplies and overhead, divided by one minus your profit margin. At $18 an hour pay that comes to roughly $32 to $37 per labor hour, depending on your overhead and margin.
Billing rate = wage × (1 + payroll burden %) × (1 + supplies % + overhead %) ÷ (1 − margin %)
| Cleaner wage | Lean: 20% burden, 20% supplies and overhead, 20% margin | Fuller: 20% burden, 30% supplies and overhead, 25% margin |
|---|---|---|
| $15/hour | $27.00 | $31.20 |
| $18/hour | $32.40 | $37.44 |
| $22/hour | $39.60 | $45.76 |
| $25/hour | $45.00 | $52.00 |
In the lean column, $18 × 1.20 × 1.20 ÷ 0.80 = $32.40. These are rates per labor hour. A building that takes two cleaners two hours is four labor hours.
Which wage to use
Use what you actually pay. For reference, the median wage for janitors and building cleaners was $17.71 an hour in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many states set minimum wages well above the federal $7.25; the Department of Labor’s state minimum wage table lists them. To see how pay compares across cleaning jobs, read how much cleaners make.
What goes into payroll burden
- Employer Social Security tax of 6.2% and Medicare tax of 1.45% (IRS).
- Federal unemployment tax: 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages, usually 0.6% after the state credit (IRS).
- State unemployment tax, which varies by state and by your claims history.
- Workers’ compensation premiums, priced largely on payroll.
- Paid time off or other benefits, if you offer them.
Add those up as a percentage of wages. Many small cleaning businesses land somewhere around 15% to 25%, but calculate your own.
Commercial cleaning prices per square foot by building type
Price per square foot is a result of the labor math, not a starting point. With the lean $32.40 rate and five cleanings a week, routine office cleaning works out to about $0.008 to $0.013 per square foot per visit, or $0.18 to $0.28 per square foot per month.
The table uses the starting production rates (square feet one cleaner cleans in an hour) from our commercial bid calculator, with $18 an hour pay, 20% payroll burden, 5% supplies, 15% overhead and a 20% margin. These are examples of the method, not survey data or market rates in your area.
| Building type | Production rate used | Per sq ft per visit | Per sq ft per month (5 nights a week) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office | 3,000 sq ft/h | $0.0108 | $0.234 |
| Medical or dental office | 1,800 sq ft/h | $0.0180 | $0.390 |
| School or daycare | 2,500 sq ft/h | $0.0130 | $0.281 |
| Retail store | 3,500 sq ft/h | $0.0093 | $0.201 |
| Gym or fitness studio | 2,500 sq ft/h | $0.0130 | $0.281 |
| Church or event space | 4,000 sq ft/h | $0.0081 | $0.176 |
| Warehouse or light industrial | 6,000 sq ft/h | $0.0054 | $0.117 |
Two things move these numbers most. First, production rate: ISSA, the cleaning industry association, shows how to build times from production rates and fixture counts in How to Calculate Cleaning Times, and your own timed walkthroughs beat any table. Second, frequency: the monthly price per square foot falls in step with fewer visits, so a once-a-week office costs about a fifth of the five-night price.
How much to charge for commercial cleaning: three worked examples
Here are three office bids worked line by line. Visits per month are cleanings per week × 52 ÷ 12, because a month averages about 4.33 weeks.
1. Small office: 2,500 sq ft, three nights a week
- Hours: 2,500 ÷ 2,500 sq ft per hour (several small rooms) = 1 hour a visit
- Labor-based price: 1 hour × $32.40 = $32.40 a visit
- Drive time: 30 minutes round trip that nobody else pays for, so add 0.5 hour × $32.40 = $16.20
- Price per visit: $48.60, rounded to a $50 minimum
- Monthly: 3 × 52 ÷ 12 = 13 visits × $50 = $650 a month
Without the minimum, this account would bill $421 a month and quietly lose money on travel. Small offices are where a minimum charge per visit matters most.
2. Mid-size office: 10,000 sq ft, five nights a week
- Hours: 10,000 ÷ 3,000 = 3.33 hours a visit
- Wages: 3.33 × $18 = $60, plus 20% burden = $72
- Supplies $3.60 and overhead $10.80, for a cost of $86.40
- Price: $86.40 ÷ 0.80 = $108 a visit
- Monthly: 21.67 visits × $108 = about $2,340, or $0.234 per sq ft per month
3. Larger office: 20,000 sq ft, five nights a week, $22 an hour pay
- Hours: 20,000 ÷ 3,000 = 6.67 hours a visit, so two cleaners for about 3.3 hours
- Wages: 6.67 × $22 = $146.67, plus 20% burden = $176
- Supplies $8.80 and overhead $26.40, for a cost of $211.20
- Price: $211.20 ÷ 0.80 = $264 a visit
- Monthly: 21.67 × $264 = about $5,720, or $0.286 per sq ft per month
Notice that the higher wage, not the bigger building, is what pushed the price per square foot up in example 3. That is why bids copied from another city often miss. Put your own numbers into the calculator, then write the quote with the free estimate template.
What raises or lowers janitorial services pricing
Anything that changes the labor hours, or the cost of each hour, changes the price. Restrooms, floor types, frequency and wages matter most.
| Factor | Effect on price |
|---|---|
| Restrooms and fixtures | Each toilet, urinal and sink adds minutes every visit; price them by fixture count |
| Floor types | Carpet vacuums fast; hard floors need mopping and periodic machine work |
| Clutter and furniture | Crowded desks and many small rooms slow production |
| Frequency | More visits raise the monthly total but each visit is lighter, so the per-visit price can drop slightly |
| Consumables | If you supply paper, soap and liners, bill them separately or add cost plus a markup |
| Medical or food areas | Stricter disinfection, training and protective gear lower production rates |
| Access and security | Waiting for a guard, badging in or tight time windows add paid minutes |
| Government contracts | Federal service contracts can require prevailing wages and fringe benefits, which raise your labor cost |
Before you bid, also check your own costs. The profit calculator shows what a new account does to your monthly profit.
Pricing floor care, carpets and other periodic work
Price periodic work such as stripping and waxing, carpet extraction and interior windows as separate jobs, from hours, materials and equipment, not as part of the monthly fee. List these prices in your proposal so the client can add them later.
- Time it. Estimate labor hours for the area, including setup, drying time you must wait on site, and cleanup.
- Add materials. Stripper, finish, pads or extraction solution for the square footage.
- Add equipment. A rental fee, or a charge per job if you own the machine, so it pays for itself and its repairs.
- Apply your billing rate and margin. Use the same formula as routine work, and set a job minimum.
An example of the method: if timing shows a 1,500 square foot vinyl floor takes your crew 6 labor hours to strip and refinish, at $32.40 per labor hour that is $194.40 of labor. Add, say, $60 of materials and a $50 machine charge for $304.40, then round to $310. Your times and material costs will differ, so treat this as a template, not a rate.
Overnight or weekend periodic work is often priced higher because your crew may need premium pay. If you pay more, charge more.
How to price janitorial services step by step
Walk the building, estimate hours, price each hour with your full costs, add margin, apply a minimum, check it per square foot, and present it monthly. This is how to price janitorial services consistently, so every bid uses the same logic.
- Walk the building. Record cleanable square feet, restrooms, floors, trash points and the scope. Our guide to getting commercial cleaning contracts includes a bid sheet you can copy.
- Estimate hours per visit. Divide square feet by a production rate for the building type, or add up task and fixture times.
- Set your billing rate. Use the formula above with your real wage, burden, overhead and margin.
- Price the visit. Hours × billing rate, plus drive time when the account is small or out of the way.
- Apply your minimum. Never go below your minimum per visit.
- Make it monthly. Price per visit × cleanings per week × 52 ÷ 12.
- Sanity-check. Compare price per square foot per month with your other accounts of the same type. If it is far off, recheck the hours.
- Learn from the market. Ask why you lose bids, and look up public bid results for local schools and agencies, which are often published.
If you are new to commercial work, start with how to start a commercial cleaning business.
How to raise prices on existing commercial accounts
Raise prices once a year, tied to the wages you pay, with 30 to 60 days’ written notice. Put an annual price review in every contract so the conversation is expected.
- Tie it to costs. If you raise cleaner pay by $1 an hour, the lean formula above says your billing rate must rise by $1.80 an hour to keep the same margin.
- Offer a choice. If a client pushes back, offer to trim the scope, for example dusting weekly instead of nightly, rather than cut the price.
- Time it well. Send the notice after a strong inspection, not after a complaint.
Price increase letter you can copy
Hi [Name], thank you for trusting us with [building] over the past year. To keep paying our crew fairly as local wages rise, our monthly price will change from [$current] to [$new] starting [date, 30 to 60 days out]. Your scope and schedule stay the same. If you would like to review the scope together, I’m happy to walk the building with you this month.
If you also run residential cleaning, BroomBook shows clients an exact price from your price list when they book and keeps recurring schedules and crew checklists in one place. It is built for homes rather than commercial contracts, so use it for that side of the business.