Hours you pay each employee in a year. 2,080 is full-time; 1,500 is a typical starting point for a part-time and full-time mix. Used to spread federal and state unemployment tax caps.
Typical starting point: a 20% margin (the same as a 25% markup). Change it to match your business. Capped at 60%.
Insurance, admin, phone, software and vehicle costs as a percent of labor. 12% is a typical starting point. Set this to 0 if you enter overhead per hour under Price a job.
Share of paid time you can bill. 0.80 means about 20% goes to travel and admin. 1.00 means every paid hour is on a job.
A 20% margin is a 25% markup. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin. Both numbers are shown in the result. Billable share of 0.80 means about 20% of paid time is travel and admin.
On-site hours plus paid drive time for the whole crew. The default is 7 on-site hours plus 1 hour of travel for a 2-person crew.
Cleaning products and consumables for this job. $20 is a typical starting point; change it to match your costs.
Insurance, admin, software and equipment wear per labor hour. $8 is a typical starting point; change it to match your business.
Holiday, rush and weekend surcharges have no official rate. Add them as a percent of labor or fold them into add-ons. Mileage uses the IRS business rate for the job date: 72.5¢ through June 2026 and 76¢ from July 2026.
Supplies, insurance, phone, software and vehicle costs for the year. $6,000 is a typical starting point; enter your own.
Hours you can actually bill after travel, admin and time off. 1,200 (about 25 a week) is a typical starting point.
Self-employment tax is 15.3% of 92.35% of net profit (14.13% effective), from IRS Schedule SE. Employer FICA, FUTA and SUTA are not added on this path. This rate is before your income tax unless you enter a rate.
This calculator prices a cleaner-hour from the wage you pay, the payroll costs on top of it, and the profit you want to keep. It opens on the U.S. median for maids and housekeeping cleaners, $17.07 an hour (BLS OEWS May 2025). Pick a state or a metro and that wage replaces the national figure.
Markup is not the margin
The previous version multiplied the wage by the number of cleaners and by (1 + markup), and its example started from a $50 wage. A 50% markup is ×1.5, which is a 33.3% margin. Profit is not the same thing as supplies, payroll tax or overhead, so those are separate inputs. The result shows the margin and the markup together.
Wages the calculator uses
State wages are BLS OEWS May 2025. House cleaning uses maids and housekeeping cleaners (SOC 37-2012). Offices use janitors and cleaners (37-2011). Medians for maids:
- Florida: $16.28 an hour (mean $16.78). The state minimum is $15.00 from 30 September 2026, and a lower published percentile is raised to that floor.
- California: $20.51 an hour, against a $16.90 state minimum for 2026.
- Texas: $14.26 an hour. Texas has no state minimum above the federal $7.25.
Three ways to get a rate
- Quick hourly rate. Wage, plus FICA, FUTA, state unemployment and workers' comp where an official rate exists, then overhead and profit.
- Price a job. Hours, IRS mileage (72.5¢ a mile through June 2026, 76¢ from July), supplies and overhead, then sales tax only where a state revenue source says the service is taxable.
- Solo. Starts from the take-home pay you want and adds self-employment tax, which is 15.3% of 92.35% of profit.
The customer view runs the same cost build and puts a marketplace price range beside it. That range is a reference only and is not added into the price. Annual hours, overhead, supplies and the profit rate are typical starting points, because no official source sets them.