BLS wage data says cleaners in New York earn $20.19/hr. That's 33.1% above the national average. Here's what that means for your bids.
BLS Hourly Wage
$20.19
Customer Rate
$43–$58/hr
Markup Factor
2.5x
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2023. Customer rate = wage × markup.
New York
National Avg
New York runs noticeably above the national average. Higher cost of living pushes wages up, and your bids should reflect that. Underbidding here means underpaying yourself.
| Service | New York Price Range |
|---|---|
| Standard home cleaning (2–3 bed) | $133–$240 |
| Deep cleaning | $266–$532 |
| Move-in/move-out cleaning | $333–$665 |
| Recurring weekly service | $106–$200 /visit |
| Office cleaning (small, <3,000 sq ft) | $200–$466 /visit |
| Office cleaning (mid, 3,000–10,000 sq ft) | $466–$1065 /visit |
| Post-construction cleanup | $0–$1 /sq ft |
| Carpet cleaning (per room) | $33–$100 |
| Window cleaning (per pane, exterior) | $5–$11 |
Prices adjusted from national averages using New York BLS wage data. Your local market may vary.
Pre-loaded with New York rates. Enter your job's square footage and type to get a starting price.
Estimated per-job price for New York (—–—/hr effective rate)
Based on BLS wage data for New York (NY). Rates reflect state-level labor costs.
State averages hide the gap between metros. Here's what cleaners actually charge in the largest New York markets.
Highest cleaning rates in the country. Coop/condo board approval, doorman/freight-elevator coordination, and after-hours scheduling add 20–35% to job duration. Pre-war coop work in Manhattan often requires building-engineer coordination on access. Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, or Bengali fluency is a real route-density advantage in the outer boroughs.
Suburban estate work in Nassau North Shore (Manhasset, Roslyn, Old Westbury) and Hamptons (East Hampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton) supports premium recurring rates. Hamptons summer-rental turnover is a separate sub-market with per-turnover flat-fee economics. Aging 1950s–1970s housing stock drives frequent post-renovation deep-clean demand.
Wealthy bedroom-community demographic supports high-end residential recurring rates near NYC. Bedford, Scarsdale, Rye, Chappaqua, similar zip codes price closer to Manhattan than to upstate. Hudson Valley weekend-home turnover (Cold Spring, Rhinebeck, Hudson) is a smaller but sustained STR sub-market.
Lower price point than downstate. State government and SUNY institutional cleaning is a major commercial category — most goes to 32BJ-affiliated contractors or prevailing-wage open-shop. Saratoga's racing-season (July–Sept) drives short-term rental turnover demand; rest of the region is slower-paced residential recurring.
Lowest cleaning rates in NY. Older urban-core housing stock plus university-adjacent rental turnover (UB, U of R, Syracuse U, RIT) drive residential demand. Tesla Gigafactory (Buffalo) and Micron chip-fab buildout (Onondaga County) are pulling commercial-cleaning supply tight on high-spec semiconductor and battery-plant adjacencies.
The factors that actually move cleaning bids in New York — beyond the BLS wage number.
Most NYC coop and condo buildings require an approved-vendor list before any cleaner can work in-unit, even for residential recurring service. The approval process — insurance COI naming the building entity, license/business documentation, sometimes a board interview — takes 7–30 days. Quoting 'we can be there next week' to a coop client without confirming approval status sets the homeowner up to be told 'no' by their board. The day-one disqualifier is being stopped at the lobby.
32BJ SEIU represents the overwhelming majority of NYC commercial cleaners in Class A office buildings, healthcare, and large institutional settings. Many large NYC commercial RFPs are de-facto union-only at the property-management level. Open-shop bids on Class A office work get filtered out at the building-management stage even when nominally legal. Outside NYC the union/open-shop split is more permeable, but RAB (Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations) collective-bargaining wages set the floor for any serious commercial bid.
New York taxes most cleaning services (Tax Bulletin ST-873 / TSB-M-12(11)S). Commercial cleaning of business property is taxable; residential cleaning of an owner-occupied home is generally exempt; cleaning of rental property and short-term rentals is taxable. Quoting a flat fee without a clear sales-tax line confuses customers and creates collection problems mid-contract. Register with the Tax Department, collect properly, and spell out tax treatment in the bid — most informal competitors don't, which is its own differentiator.
NYC employers must provide up to 56 hours of paid safe/sick leave per year (2020 expansion); NY HERO Act (2021) added airborne-pathogen workplace plans. Loaded W-2 cost in NYC for cleaning crews runs ~17–22% above gross hourly (vs. ~11–14% in lower-cost states). Pricing 'against' a 1099-based competitor in NYC is pricing against someone underpaying their tax exposure — and DOL audits hit cleaning companies hard. Build the loaded cost into the bid; don't compete on artificial price floors.
NYC commercial buildings typically restrict cleaning to after-hours (6pm–6am) windows, with freight-elevator booking, security-desk check-in, and Certificate of Insurance documentation per visit. The coordination overhead alone adds 12–25 minutes per crew per shift before any cleaning happens. Quote 1.3–1.6x your suburban hourly rate to cover access friction. Cleaners new to NYC who price like they're cleaning a Long Island office park lose money in week one.
The most common cleaning jobs in New York, with what to focus on in the bid and what to watch out for.
What to know about New York-specific licensing, permitting, and compliance before bidding cleaning work.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the New York licensing board and your local jurisdiction before bidding.
Based on BLS wage data, house cleaners in New York typically charge between $43 and $58 per hour. The actual rate depends on the job type, scope, and whether materials are included.
Cleaning labor costs in New York are 33.1% above the national average. The BLS-reported hourly wage in New York is $20.19, compared to $15.17 nationally.
Start with your labor cost ($20.19/hr in New York), apply a 2.5x markup to cover overhead, supplies, insurance, and profit. That puts your customer-facing rate around $43–$58/hr. Then adjust for job scope: complex jobs command higher rates.
The biggest factors are metro vs. rural (cities within New York can vary 30–40%), job complexity, and recurring vs. one-time work. Recurring contracts cost less per visit because there's no re-quoting or onboarding.
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Sample bid sheet with line items, scope, and payment terms — pair with the New York rates above.
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