Benchmarks

Cleaning bid benchmarks by facility type

Industry-reference ranges for cost per sqft per year, cleaning hours per 1,000 sqft, and labor burden rates across seven commercial facility types. Sourced from BOMA, ISSA, APPA, and BLS occupational wage data. Apply a regional adjustment factor to calibrate the median to your market.

7 Facility Types
3 Metrics
6 Regions
Published Industry Sources

Facility

Match to the primary use of the building being bid. Mixed-use buildings should be classified by dominant occupancy.

Region

Adjusts the median cost per sqft only — derived from BLS metropolitan wage indices. Low and high bounds remain at national published ranges.

Seed data construction

adjusted_median = published_national_median × regional_factor regional_factor = BLS_metro_area_wage_index / BLS_national_wage_index hours_median = (low_hrs + high_hrs) / 2

How ranges are set

Low, median, and high values for each metric derive from published ranges in the sources below. Where sources report quartile data, the 25th percentile anchors the low, the 50th anchors the median, and the 75th–90th anchors the high. Where sources report only a range without quartile breakdowns, the low and high represent the reported minimum and maximum for standard commercial scope — outliers above the 90th percentile (cleanrooms, critical environments) are excluded.

Regional adjustment

The regional factor applies only to the median cost per sqft. Low and high bounds remain at nationally published ranges regardless of region. Regional factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) metropolitan area wage data for SOC 37-2011 (Janitors and Cleaners) relative to the national average.

Labor burden rate

Labor burden includes base wage, payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), and basic benefits. Fully-loaded burden at 26–32% above base wage is typical in commercial cleaning depending on market and employer. The burden rate displayed is a national typical range; prevailing-wage accounts and unionized markets carry higher effective burden.

Primary data sources

  • BOMA Experience Exchange Report (EER) — Annual benchmarking covering operating expenses for office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use properties. boma.org — Experience Exchange Report.
  • ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) — Cost and productivity ranges for commercial cleaning operations across facility types. issa.com — CIMS Standard.
  • APPA Custodial Staffing Guidelines — Five-level custodial staffing model defining hours-per-1,000-sqft by cleanliness level. Level 3 (Casual Inattention) is the reference level used. appa.org — Custodial Staffing Guidelines.
  • BLS OES — SOC 37-2011 — National and metropolitan area wage data for Janitors and Cleaners. May 2023 national estimates used for labor burden rate ranges. bls.gov — OES SOC 37-2011.