Local wages, the largest piece of a quote
Building cleaning and maintenance jobs across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area paid an hourly average of $21.68 as of May 2025, against $19.66 for the nation as a whole. That wage is what the worker receives, which is different from what a company bills. A provider's billing rate must also cover payroll taxes, equipment, insurance, supervision, supplies and profit.
Source: Occupational Employment and Wages in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington — May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figures are the mean hourly wage for building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations.
A worked calculation
Suppose your office is cleaned nightly by a crew of two, each working three hours, for 6 labor hours in total. Using $21.68 per hour, the average for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the wages for that shift total $130.08 per night, and that is before insurance, supplies or overhead are counted. When a quote falls well below that level, it usually means the provider is planning fewer hours, dropping tasks or relying on uninsured labor.
Pricing models you will see
| Pricing model | When it is used |
|---|---|
| Fixed monthly price | Standard for recurring contracts. Hours are estimated up front, the scope is agreed, and the provider invoices one set amount each month. |
| Per visit | Typical for single deep cleans and for service scheduled weekly or less often. |
| Hourly | Suited to day porter coverage, one-off projects and jobs whose hours are difficult to estimate in advance. |
| Per square foot | Frequently used to price post-construction cleaning, along with carpet extraction, stripping and waxing, and similar floor projects. |
Factors that move your price
- Building size
- Every added square foot adds minutes to each visit, and those labor hours make up most of what you will pay.
- Cleaning frequency
- Nightly service raises the monthly total compared with weekly service, although the per-visit cost usually falls as visits become more frequent.
- Facility type
- Exam rooms, kitchens and heavily used restrooms need extra time per visit, along with products chosen for those surfaces, compared with a quiet office.
- Floor materials
- Vinyl tile, carpet and sealed concrete are each serviced with different machines. Salt carried in through the winter also wears floors near the doors, and refinishing work like stripping and waxing usually appears as its own line.
- Access and scheduling
- Alarm procedures, after-hours windows and a large number of locked rooms all change the way a crew organizes each visit.
Controlling the cost
- Match each area's frequency to its actual use; lightly occupied rooms may need service only once a week.
- Ask for periodic floor work to be quoted separately from recurring cleaning, which keeps both prices clear.
- Arrange easy entry and a defined cleaning window, because paid hours spent waiting add to your cost.
- Request a written scope that states the frequency of every task, which puts all quotes on the same footing.