How to price a janitorial government contract

A federal janitorial solicitation gives you a building, a performance work statement (PWS) and a Service Contract Act wage determination. It does not give you hours. Turning square footage and cleaning frequencies into labor hours is the estimator's job, and it is where most janitorial bids are won or lost.

This guide walks through the build in order: tasks, hours, labor classes, staffing, the labor rate, supplies, and a final check. It reuses the Harris County, Texas numbers from our burdened labor rate guide, so you can trace every figure.

1. Read the PWS as tasks and frequencies

Break the PWS into a list of tasks, each with an area and a frequency:

• Routine work done every cleaning day: trash, restrooms, dusting, vacuuming, spot mopping.
• Periodic work done weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly: stripping and refinishing hard floors, carpet extraction, high dusting, window washing.

Note the cleaning days the PWS requires, the time window you are allowed in the building, the floor types, and the number of restrooms. If the agency offers a site visit, go. Density, travel distances and access rules change your hours more than the square footage does.

2. Turn square feet into labor hours

Hours per year = area ÷ production rate × times per year
Area in square feet, production rate in square feet per hour

Use production rates you have measured on similar buildings. Published industry cleaning times are a fair starting point, but adjust them for floor type, furniture density, restrooms and travel. The rates in the example below are assumptions, not a standard.

Work out routine and periodic hours separately. Periodic tasks are small in hours but easy to forget, and an agency will hold you to every frequency in the PWS.

3. Match each task to a class on the WD

Every worker must get at least the WD rate for the class of work they perform. WD 2015-5233 rev 35 for the Houston area lists Janitor (11150) and Housekeeping Aide (11122) at $14.74, and Maid or Houseman (11240) at $14.43. The WD says the duties of each class are those in the SCA Directory of Occupations. If a task fits no listed class, you need a conformance; see how to read an SCA wage determination.

Supervision needs a decision too. A site manager employed in a bona fide executive capacity under 29 CFR part 541 is not a service employee (29 CFR 4.156), so the WD does not set that pay. A lead who does not meet those tests is a service employee and is owed at least the WD rate for the work performed. Price the manager in overhead or as a direct line, consistent with your accounting.

4. From hours to people

FTEs = productive hours needed ÷ productive hours per FTE

A full-time cleaner with eleven holidays and two weeks of vacation is paid for 2,080 hours but works 1,912. Use 1,912, not 2,080, or you will be short every time someone is on leave.

Night crews are often part-time. That does not change the hourly burden much. Part-time employees earn vacation and holidays in proportion to their hours (29 CFR 4.176), and H&W is owed on every hour paid up to 40 a week (29 CFR 4.175(a)(1)). One thing does go up: FUTA and SUTA are charged on a wage base per employee, so ten part-time cleaners cost more in unemployment tax than five full-time ones.

5. Price labor per productive hour

Build one burdened bill rate per labor class, per productive hour: wage with PTO uplift, H&W, payroll taxes, workers' comp, then overhead, G&A and fee. The full method is in how to build a burdened labor rate for an SCA bid. For a Janitor in Harris County with our sample rates it comes to $30.64.

Labor price = productive hours × bill rate per productive hour

The bill rate already carries PTO, H&W, taxes and indirects. Do not add them a second time. In option years, keep labor at the current WD rates. FAR 52.222-43(b) makes you warrant that your prices include no allowance for the wage and fringe increases the clause adjusts for later. See FAR 52.222-43 price adjustment, step by step.

6. Supplies, equipment and other direct costs

• Consumables: liners, paper, soap, chemicals. Read the PWS closely; some agencies furnish paper products and some do not.
• Equipment: vacuums, floor machines, carts. Spread the cost over the base and option years you expect to use it.
• Markups: these costs usually carry G&A and fee but not labor overhead. Use the same bases your accounting system uses.

Worked example: a 60,000 sq ft office building

Assumptions: 60,000 cleanable square feet in Harris County, Texas, cleaned 250 nights a year. Routine production rate 3,000 sq ft per hour. 12,000 sq ft of hard floor stripped and refinished twice a year at 400 sq ft per hour. 30,000 sq ft of carpet extracted once a year at 1,000 sq ft per hour. All hours at the Janitor class, billed at $30.64 per productive hour. Supplies and equipment $7,500 a year with G&A 8% and fee 6%. Replace every assumption with your own.

Twenty routine hours a night could be five cleaners on four-hour shifts. Check that against the PWS cleaning window: if the building is open to you for four hours, you need five people on site every night, plus coverage when one is off.

The $30.64 rate assumes two weeks of vacation. If the incumbent workforce stays on with longer service, their vacation carries over and your PTO hours go up. See SCA vacation and holiday pay.

Checks before you submit

• The WD number and revision match the one attached to the solicitation.
• Every PWS task and frequency has hours against it.
• Your crew fits the cleaning window the PWS allows.
• Price per square foot is in line with your own past bids for similar buildings.
• Labor is flat across option years; only supplies and equipment escalate.

Related guides

• How to build a burdened labor rate for an SCA bid
• How to find the right SCA wage determination
• SCA vacation and holiday pay: how to price it

Sources

• SAM.gov: Wage Determination 2015-5233, revision 35
• eCFR: 29 CFR part 4, sections 4.156, 4.175 and 4.176
• Acquisition.gov: FAR 52.222-43

Last reviewed: November 2026. This guide is a pricing aid and general information, not legal or tax advice.