Written for owners of US cleaning businesses: janitorial and custodial contractors for offices, medical buildings, schools and property managers, residential and maid services, and specialty cleaners doing post-construction, move-out, window, carpet and biohazard work.
The short version
- Count every hour, including drive time.Travel between houses, set-up, waiting to be let in and lock-up are work time. The commute to the first job is not.
- Test pay against the highest minimum.Divide the week's pay by all hours worked. The result must meet the federal, state or city minimum, whichever is highest.
- Add overtime on per-house pay too.Pay half the regular rate on top for each hour over 40 in the workweek (As of Oct 2026).
Cleaning crews move between buildings and houses, may be paid per house or per room, and work evenings and split shifts. Each of those creates a wage rule that an owner can miss.
The wage floors
The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, with time and a half over 40 hours in a workweek, and the highest of federal, state and city law wins. For 2026: California $16.90 from January 1, with many cities higher; New York $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 in the rest of the state; Florida $15.00 from September 30, 2026; Texas $7.25, tied to the federal rate. Florida and Texas bar their cities and counties from setting a higher minimum wage for most private employers. As of Oct 2026.
29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1) and 207(a)(1); Cal. Lab. Code sec. 1182.12; N.Y. Lab. Law sec. 652; Fla. Const. art. X, sec. 24; Fla. Stat. sec. 218.077(2); Tex. Lab. Code secs. 62.051 and 62.0515
Hours worked
Travel from one building or house to the next during the workday is work time; the ordinary home-to-first-job commute is not. Required training, set-up, waiting to be let in and lock-up checks are work time too, and rounding clock times must be neutral over time.
29 C.F.R. 785.35, 785.38 and 785.48(b)
Piece rates still earn overtime
If you pay per house or per room, the regular rate is total piece earnings divided by all hours worked, drive time included, and each overtime hour adds half that rate (29 C.F.R. 778.111).
| Piece earnings for the week | $910 |
| Overtime premium: 0.5 x $17.50 x 12 hours | $105 |
| Total pay owed for the week | $1,015 |
| Regular rate | $17.50 |
$910 / 52 hoursPaying the flat $910 with no premium shorts the team lead $105.00 that week. Fix the pay plan and look back at least 2 years, or 3 if willful, under the FLSA, and longer in states whose own wage laws allow it.
Drive time between jobs is hours worked, and piece-rate workers are owed overtime at half the regular rate for each hour over 40.
State rules that change the math
- California: daily overtime after 8 hours, separate pay for rest periods for piece-rate workers, reimbursement of necessary expenses such as driving a personal car between houses, and twice-monthly pay with wage statements.
- New York: weekly pay for manual workers, which includes cleaners, unless the state authorizes otherwise.
- Texas: at least twice-monthly pay for nonexempt staff.
- Federally: unreimbursed tools or mileage cannot take pay below the minimum wage.
Paid sick leave: California requires 40 hours or 5 days a year. New York requires up to 40 paid hours a calendar year for 5 to 99 employees and up to 56 for 100 or more; employers with 4 or fewer provide up to 40 hours, paid if prior tax year net income exceeded $1 million and otherwise unpaid, and New York City has its own law on top. Texas and Florida have no statewide requirement. Price sick leave into each account. As of Oct 2026.
Before the first shift
Complete Form I-9 for every hire: Section 1 by the first day of work and Section 2 within 3 business days of the start, or on the first day if the job lasts fewer than 3 business days. Keep it for 3 years after hire or 1 year after the job ends, whichever is later. Florida private employers with 25 or more employees also run E-Verify for each new employee within 3 business days after work for pay begins. As of Oct 2026.
8 U.S.C. 1324a; 8 C.F.R. 274a.2(b)(1); Fla. Stat. sec. 448.095(2)
If you run background checks on cleaners, follow the federal FCRA disclosure and adverse action steps (15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)) and state and city fair chance laws, such as California Gov. Code sec. 12952 and the New York City Fair Chance Act, and treat the results as sensitive data.
GPS or geofenced clock-in is your best evidence that drive time and set-up were paid. Tell staff what is collected, and keep payroll records at least 3 years, or 6 years in New York.
Asked in Greymill
Driving from house to house during the workday is work time. The ordinary commute to the first house is not.
Hours worked: 46 cleaning + 6 driving = 52
Regular rate: $910 / 52 = $17.50 an hour
Overtime premium (the extra half): 0.5 x $17.50 x 12 hours over 40 = $105
Total pay for the week: $1,015
Minimum wage: $17.50 clears Florida's $15.00 (As of Oct 2026). Only the overtime is short.
The same plan underpays in every week over 40 hours. Fix it now, then look back at least 2 years, or 3 if willful, under the FLSA, the federal wage law (As of Oct 2026).
Send me the rest of the crew's hours and I'll run the same check.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Staff & HR works it through for your business.
I run a cleaning business in [state], in the US. Our cleaners are paid [per hour, per house or per room, with the rates], work about [hours] a week across [number] jobs a day with [minutes] of driving between them, and are paid [weekly, biweekly or twice a month]. Check our pay plan against federal, state and city minimum wage and overtime rules, show any shortfall for a typical week, and tell me what to change and how far back to look.
More for cleaning and facilities in the US
- Bidding a janitorial account by the square foot without losing moneyBuild a janitorial bid from cleanable square feet and production rates up to a fully burdened labor cost, overhead and margin, then protect it from the next wage increase.Read the lesson
- Making payroll every week while accounts pay in 45 daysWhy a growing janitorial business runs short of cash, how much working capital the payroll gap needs, and the forecast, terms and funding that close it.Read the lesson
- Does my state charge sales tax on cleaning, and what do I file for subcontractors?Whether janitorial work is taxable depends on the state and the type of building, and the 1099-NEC threshold for paying subcontractors changed for 2026.Read the lesson
- The registrations and OSHA rules a cleaning company actually has to meetMost states do not license cleaning, but registration, hazard communication, bloodborne pathogens, injury reporting and a few state rules apply to janitorial and specialty cleaners, with a HazCom date this fall.Read the lesson
- The janitorial contract clauses that decide whether an account makes moneyEscalation, termination, indemnity, insurance and payment terms decide an account's margin long after the bid, and recurring residential plans carry their own auto-renewal rules.Read the lesson
- Winning janitorial accounts from property managers, public buyers and federal agenciesCommercial buyers choose on readiness, records and a credible start-up plan, public bids add registrations and wage determinations, and taking over an account can bring the previous crew with it.Read the lesson
- Our cleaners are on 1099s and someone is asking whether they are really employeesPaying your own cleaners as independent contractors, or running cleaning teams as franchisees or app workers, can fail state and federal tests and bring back payroll tax, wages and penalties.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every cleaning and facilities lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1), 207(a)(1) (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- Lab. Code 1182.12 (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- Lab. Law 652; NYSDOL "will stay the same"; DIR release (Finance certified July 31, 2026) (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- Art. X, sec. 24 (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- Lab. Code 62.051 (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- 785.35, 785.38, 785.48(b) (People and pay: FLSA and state wage law)
- Lab. Code 2775(b)(1)(B), applicable exemptions including 2776, and 226.8 willfulness conditions; counsel confirmation before remediation (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- 778.111; 785.38; 29 U.S.C. 255(a) (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- Tex. Lab. Code 406.122(a)-(b), 406.123(a)-(b), 406.127 show why subcontractor coverage is not automatic (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- Filing dates and Form 1099-NEC specific instructions; IRC 3406 and 7503; Sunday January 31 shifts to Monday February 1, 2027 (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- 1910.1030(f)(3); 1904.8 (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- 29 CFR 1910.1200(j)(2)(ii) and (j)(3)(ii), alternative workplace labeling (Hard cases: pay, tax and safety)
- EO 14236 sec. 2 revokes EO 14026 (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- Coverall North America v. Commissioner, 447 Mass. 852 (2006) (Pitfalls that embarrass the product)
- 1904.39(a) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- 1910.1030(f)(3) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- 8 C.F.R. 274a.2(b)(1)(i) to (iii) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- Fla. Stat. 448.095(2)(a), (b)2 (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- 15 U.S.C. 8403(1), (2) (Who must sign off: time-critical steps first)
- 516.2, 516.5 (Operations and software)
- Lab. Law 195(4) (Operations and software)
- Occupations Code ch. 1958 (Licenses, registrations and federal contracts)
- 41 U.S.C. 6702(a), 6703(1) to (2), 6707(c) (Licenses, registrations and federal contracts)
- 31 U.S.C. 3901 to 3907 (Licenses, registrations and federal contracts)
- 31 CFR 1010.380 as amended by 91 Fed. Reg. 52508, final rule effective August 14, 2026; FinCEN alert updated August 11, 2026 (Licenses, registrations and federal contracts)
- 15 U.S.C. 1681b(b); Gov. Code 12952 (Licenses, registrations and federal contracts)