Pricing guide · updated August 2026
How Is Office Cleaning Priced in New York?
What your quote is actually made of, the units that make two bids comparable, and the labour floor underneath every price you will be offered — so you can tell a keen number from an impossible one.
Recurring office cleaning in New York is quoted as a flat monthly fee, and that fee is built from cleaner-hours. Square footage sets the ballpark; restroom count, pantry density, build-out type, floor mix and glass decide where you land inside it. We do not publish a rate card, because a number quoted without those variables is a guess that turns into an argument later. What this page gives you instead is the arithmetic underneath every quote you will receive, the units a price has to be stated in before two bids can be compared, and the list of what a per-square-foot rate leaves out. Send us your square footage and the nights you need and you get a fixed monthly price in writing, with the cleaner-hours stated.
Most pages on this topic give you a range and stop. The range is the easy part. What actually helps when you are comparing three bids that are forty percent apart is understanding what the number is made of — because once you can see the labour cost underneath a quote, an implausible bid stops looking like a bargain and starts looking like a warning.
So this page does three things. It shows you what your price is actually made of. It shows you the units a quote has to be stated in before two quotes can be compared at all. And it lists what is not in a per-square-foot rate, which is where most of the unpleasant surprises live.
We do not publish rates, and we would be sceptical of anyone who does. A number published without your restroom count, your floor mix, your build-out density and your building's freight rules is not a price — it is a guess that becomes an argument later. What we will do is walk you through the arithmetic below, then put a fixed monthly figure for your space in writing, with the cleaner-hours stated, usually within two business days.
What Decides What You Pay
Square footage sets the ballpark. It is not what moves you inside it. For Class B and Class C space on a standard nightly scope, these are the variables that actually decide the number, in roughly the order they matter.
| Driver | Why it matters | Effect on your price |
|---|---|---|
| Restroom count | A restroom takes 12–20 minutes to do properly, regardless of how big the office is | The strongest single driver after size |
| Pantry and kitchen density | A full kitchen with a dishwasher and a coffee programme is a different job from a counter with a kettle | Strong |
| Build-out type | Twelve private offices means twelve bins, twelve doors and twelve floors to enter | Dense build-out costs more than open plan of the same area |
| Floor mix | Carpet vacuums fast; hard floor needs dust mopping and damp mopping, and shows neglect sooner | Moderate |
| Glass | Demountable partitions and phone booths carry a lot of surface that shows every mark | Moderate, and rising in modern fit-outs |
| Frequency | Soil accumulates between visits, so a weekly visit carries more work than a nightly one | Fewer nights does not divide the price proportionally |
| Scale | Much of the work is restrooms, waste and door-to-door detail rather than open floor | Cost per square foot falls as the floorplate grows |
| Building access | Freight hours, elevator operators and dock rules can add unpaid time to every visit | Varies; ask your managing agent |
One arithmetic note worth carrying into any proposal you read: a month is 4.33 weeks, so five-night service is about 21.7 visits per month, not 20. That difference is roughly 8% of your annual spend and it is the most common error in cleaning proposals — usually in the vendor's favour.
Why New York Costs What It Does: The Labour Floor
Here is the fact that is missing from essentially every cleaning-cost page on the internet, and it is the one that makes the rest of this page make sense.
New York City publishes a prevailing wage schedule for building service employees, issued under New York Labor Law Article 9, Real Property Tax Law §421-a and New York City Administrative Code §6-130. It sets the rate for a cleaner or porter in a non-residential office building. As published for the period beginning 1 January 2026:
| Building class | Size | Hourly wage | Supplemental benefits | Total package |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class A | Over 280,000 sq ft | Highest of the three | Same across all classes | Published by the City |
| Class B | 120,000 – 280,000 sq ft | Cents below Class A | Same across all classes | Published by the City |
| Class C | Under 120,000 sq ft | Cents below Class B | Same across all classes | Published by the City |
Two things fall out of that table immediately.
First, the neighbourhood theory is wrong. The difference between the Class A rate and the Class C rate is a few cents an hour. Whatever makes a Midtown quote differ from a SoHo quote, it is not the wage schedule. It is restroom count, glass, floor type, freight access and whether the landlord is already cleaning your suite.
Second, it puts a floor under credible bids. On a prevailing-wage-covered site, a fully burdened cleaner costs a cleaning company the published total package before supervision, equipment, chemicals, insurance, payroll administration, office overhead or any margin at all. Not every Class B and C job is covered by that schedule — which is exactly why smaller buildings cost less to clean, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But it gives you a reference point you can look up yourself. When a bid implies an all-in labour cost well below that published floor, the money is coming from somewhere, and the usual candidates are an outside crew with no workers' compensation, a scope that quietly drops half the tasks after month three, or an invoice that grows on extras.
People conflate these constantly, and it is why published “hourly rates” for NYC cleaning vary by a factor of five. They are measuring different things.
| Figure | What it measures | Where to look it up |
|---|---|---|
| Worker wage, non-union | What lands in the cleaner's pocket per hour | Job listings; the vendor's own payroll |
| BLS metro mean | All building and grounds cleaning occupations, NY–Newark–Jersey City | Bureau of Labor Statistics, linked below |
| Prevailing wage, straight wage | Published rate before benefits, Class A office | NYC Comptroller schedule, linked below |
| Prevailing wage, total package | Wage plus supplemental benefits — the cleaning company's actual cost | NYC Comptroller schedule, linked below |
| Rate billed to client | What appears on a proposal per cleaner-hour | Ask each vendor directly — this is the one that matters |
| Specialty / kitchen / biohazard | Trained specialist work | Quoted per job |
How a Flat Monthly Price Is Actually Calculated
Recurring service is quoted as a flat monthly fee, but the fee is built from hours. The formula every honest estimator in this city uses is the same one:
Square feet ÷ production rate = labour hours per visit.
Labour hours × fully burdened rate = labour cost per visit.
Labour cost ÷ (1 − overhead and margin) = price per visit.
Price per visit × visits per month = your monthly fee.
What goes into each line, in order:
| Step | What it is | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Production rate | How many square feet one cleaner covers in an hour at your build-out density | What rate did you assume, and why that one for my space? |
| Cleaner-hours per visit | The single number the whole price is built on | How many cleaner-hours is this price built on? |
| Wage and payroll burden | Wage plus employer taxes, workers' compensation and NY statutory disability | Are the cleaners your W-2 employees or outside labour? |
| Supervision, equipment, chemicals, insurance | The daily walk, the kit, and coverage at the limits your building demands | Who walks the work, and how often? |
| Overhead and margin | Recruiting, training, scheduling, administration, profit | — |
| Billed rate per cleaner-hour | The four lines above, divided by the hours | What is your billed rate per cleaner-hour? |
| Monthly fee | Per-visit price times visits per month | Is that 21.7 visits at five nights, or did you use 20? |
If a vendor cannot walk you through those lines for your own space, they have not estimated your job. They have looked at your square footage and named a number they think you will accept. The second row is the one to press on: without it, “clean the office” can honestly mean forty-five minutes or three hours.
What Is Not in a per-Square-Foot Rate
Every quote in this industry excludes things. The difference between a good vendor and a bad one is whether the exclusions are written down before you sign or discovered on an invoice in month four.
| Item | Typical treatment | How it is normally billed |
|---|---|---|
| Restroom & pantry consumables | Client-supplied, vendor-supplied at cost-plus, or building-supplied | Per employee per month, or at cost plus a margin |
| Carpet hot water extraction | Scheduled 1–2× per year | Per square foot of carpet |
| VCT strip & refinish | Scheduled 1–2× per year | Per square foot of hard floor only |
| Interior window & partition glass | Quarterly or semi-annual cycle | Quoted per elevation |
| Exterior / high-rise window cleaning | Separate licensed specialist under different regulations | Per window, scaling with height |
| Day porter coverage | Hourly, business hours | Per hour, per day |
| Refrigerator interior | Scheduled add-on, monthly or quarterly | Flat per occurrence |
| High dusting above 10 ft | Quarterly add-on | Flat per occurrence |
| Building freight elevator overtime | Charged by the building, often passed through | At the building's own rates — ask the managing agent |
| After-hours / weekend premium | Applied above the standard night window | A percentage uplift on the standard rate |
| Emergency call-out | Outside scheduled service | A multiple of the standard hourly rate |
The full hidden-cost breakdown goes item by item, including the New York-specific ones — compactor billing, Certificate of Insurance processing fees, and union escalators on any term running past December 2027.
Manhattan Submarkets: What Actually Changes the Price
Buyers ask whether Midtown costs more than Chelsea. The honest answer is that neighbourhood is a proxy, not a cause — but the proxy correlates with real things, so here is the table anyway.
| Submarket | Typical stock | Cleaning usually included in rent? | Cost pressure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midtown / Plaza District | Class A towers | Often yes | Check your lease before hiring anyone |
| Midtown East / Grand Central | Mixed A and B | Sometimes | Freight windows tight, private-office density high |
| Garment District | Pre-war Class B/C lofts | Rarely | Freight operator overtime, aged floor substrates |
| Flatiron / NoMad | Converted lofts, Class B | Rarely | Open plan, high glass, hard floors |
| Chelsea | Converted industrial, Class B/C | Rarely | Ground-floor grit, mixed-use loading |
| SoHo / Hudson Square | Loft conversions | Rarely | Wood floors, exposed brick, few restrooms |
| Tribeca | Loft conversions, boutique | Rarely | Finish-sensitive surfaces |
| Financial District | Class A and older B | Varies widely | After-hours security screening, badge lead times |
| Hudson Yards | New Class A | Usually yes | Green-cleaning documentation requirements |
| Murray Hill | Class B/C, medical-heavy | Rarely | Medical suites carry separate protocol and waste rules |
In most Manhattan Class A buildings, cleaning of your suite is already performed by the landlord's own cleaning company and paid for through your base rent — typically carpets vacuumed, unobstructed surfaces dusted and trash removed five nights a week. Class B and Class C leases generally exclude it, which is why tenants in those buildings hire the cleaners themselves. Before you sign with anybody, find the cleaning clause in your lease. You may be about to buy something twice.
Deep Cleaning, One-Time Work and Project Pricing
| Service | Rate | 5,000 sq ft example |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial deep clean | Per square foot, one-off | Runs meaningfully above the standard nightly rate for the same space |
| Post-construction, rough clean | Per square foot, during construction | The lightest of the three construction phases |
| Post-construction, final detail | Per square foot, after punch list | Carries most of the cost of the three phases |
| Post-construction, pre-occupancy touch-up | Per square foot, after furniture install | The lightest phase overall |
| Move-out / broom-clean restoration | Per square foot, one-off | Depends on what the outgoing tenant left behind |
| Carpet hot water extraction | Per square foot of carpet | Scheduled once or twice a year |
| VCT strip & refinish | Per square foot of hard floor only | Quoted on hard-floor area, not total area |
| Emergency / same-day response | 1.5× – 2× standard | Minimum call-out applies |
How to Sanity-Check Three Bids
- Convert everything to the same unit. Ask each vendor for price per visit, visits per month, and total monthly. If one quoted per month and one quoted per visit, you are not comparing anything yet.
- Divide by square footage. Now you have cost per square foot per visit for all three, and the outlier becomes obvious.
- Ask for the labour hours. “How many cleaner-hours per visit is this priced at?” A 5,000 sq ft office is roughly 1.2–1.8 hours. If a bid implies 0.6 hours, the scope is going to shrink.
- Compare the scope exhibits, not the cover letters. Line up the task lists side by side. The cheap bid is usually cheap because three lines are missing.
- Read the term, the notice period and the renewal clause. A slightly cheaper price on a 24-month auto-renewing term with a 120-day non-renewal window is not cheaper. Here is what those clauses should say.
- Ask who employs the cleaners. Not who supervises them — who signs their paycheque. Why it matters to you, legally.
Sources
- NYC DCAS — Prevailing Wage Schedule for Building Service Employees
- NYC Comptroller — Building Service Employee Schedule 2025–2026
- SEIU 32BJ — Commercial cleaners deal, ratified February 2024
- SEIU 32BJ / RAB Contractors Collective Bargaining Agreement 2024–2027
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Janitors and Building Cleaners, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wages, New York–Newark–Jersey City
Get the Number for Your Actual Space
Ranges are useful for sanity-checking a bid. They are not a quote. Send us the square footage and how many nights you need and we will send back a written scope and a fixed monthly price — usually within two business days, and always with the exclusions listed.
What Will My Space Cost?
Written scope and fixed monthly price, usually within two business days.
We reply to every request. If your building needs a Certificate of Insurance or vendor registration, we handle that paperwork before the first night.
Office Cleaning Cost: Frequently Asked Questions
How much does office cleaning cost per square foot in Manhattan?
We do not publish a per-square-foot rate, and a figure you find published without a unit attached is not a price. The same work stated per visit, per month and per year produces three numbers that differ by more than twenty times, which is why published cleaning rates appear to contradict each other everywhere you look. Ask any source which unit it means before you compare it to anything. What actually moves your number is restroom count, pantry density, build-out type, floor mix and glass — not neighbourhood. Send us your square footage and nights and you get a fixed monthly figure in writing, with the cleaner-hours stated.
What is a fair monthly price for a 5,000 sq ft office?
There is no single fair number, and anyone who gives you one without asking about your restrooms has not estimated your job. The way to test whether a quote is fair is to ask how many cleaner-hours per visit the price is built on, then ask the same question of every other bidder. Two proposals listing identical tasks can buy very different amounts of work. If a vendor will not state the hours, that is the answer.
Why is New York more expensive than the national average?
Because the wage floor is published and it is high. New York City publishes a prevailing wage schedule for building service employees, setting wages plus supplemental benefits for cleaners in non-residential office buildings. Labour is around 85% of what janitorial service costs, so that floor propagates straight into the price. National averages are built on markets with no such schedule. The current figures are in the City's own schedule, linked in the sources on this page.
Is Midtown more expensive than Chelsea or SoHo?
Barely, and not for the reason people assume. The prevailing wage schedule distinguishes buildings by size, not by neighbourhood, and the gap between the Class A and Class C rate is a few cents an hour. What actually moves your price between submarkets is building class, whether the landlord already cleans your suite through base rent, loading-dock and freight access, and build-out type. A SoHo loft with exposed brick, a wood floor and one restroom prices very differently from a Midtown floor with twelve private offices and two pantries.
Do cleaning companies charge a flat rate or by the hour?
Recurring janitorial service in New York is almost always quoted as a flat monthly fee. Hourly billing shows up for one-time deep cleans, day-porter coverage, emergency call-outs and any work where the scope is genuinely undefined. The flat fee is still calculated from hours — square feet divided by a production rate, multiplied by the fully burdened labour rate and the frequency, plus overhead and margin. A vendor who cannot show you that arithmetic is guessing.
What should a one-time deep clean cost?
It is priced per square foot as a one-off job and runs meaningfully above your standard nightly rate for the same space, because it is a different job: interior glass, high dusting, appliance interiors, detailed restroom descaling and floor work that a nightly visit never touches. Ignore the national “average deep clean” figures you will find quoted online — they come from residential and small-job data and have nothing to do with a commercial build-out.
How much do consumables add?
Consumables — tissue, hand towel, soap, liners — are normally budgeted per employee per month, and recycled-content and premium grades run higher than standard. Whether that sits on your invoice or your Amazon account depends on which of the three supply models you are on, and in many multi-tenant Manhattan buildings the common-area restrooms are stocked by the building and billed through your operating expenses already. Check before you buy a single case.
Stop Guessing What Your Cleaning Should Cost.
Send us the square footage and the nights you need. You get an itemised scope, a fixed monthly price and the exclusions in writing.