Cleaning & janitorial
Janitorial Payroll Calculator
Work out payroll cost for a janitorial operation including shift premiums and cover.
Result
Burden rates vary by state, trade and claims history. Take yours from the accounts rather than the default here, because a ten point error moves every price you quote.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Shift premiums for out of hours working, which most commercial cleaning involves.
- Cover for absence on contracted sites.
- Supervision, which is payroll rather than overhead on larger operations.
Where this one goes wrong
Costing a contract on base rates when the work happens at night. Out of hours premiums apply to most commercial cleaning hours, and a bid costed on daytime rates is under from the start.
Questions
About this calculator
How much do shift premiums add?
Enough to change a bid's viability, and they apply to the majority of commercial cleaning hours. They belong in the costing rather than being discovered at payroll.
How should cover be budgeted?
As an uplift on contracted hours based on your own absence rate. Contracted sites have to be cleaned regardless, so the cost is predictable in aggregate.
Is supervision payroll or overhead?
Where it is site-specific it belongs to the contract. Where it is regional it is overhead. Splitting it correctly shows which contracts are actually profitable.
The formula
cost = (wage x hours + wage x multiplier x overtime) x (1 + burden%)
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How to use this calculator
- People. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 12.
- Hourly wage ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $18.
- Normal hours per week. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 40.
- Overtime hours per week. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 4.
- Overtime multiplier. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 1.5.
- Labour burden (%). Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to payroll per week, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| People | 12 |
| Hourly wage | $18 |
| Normal hours per week | 40 |
| Overtime hours per week | 4 |
| Overtime multiplier | 1.5 |
| Labour burden | 28% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Payroll per week main result | $12,718 |
| Payroll per year | $661,340 |
| True cost per hour | $24.09 |
| Overtime per year | $86,262 |
Payroll is $12,718 a week, $661,340 a year. A $18.00 wage really costs $24.09 an hour, and overtime alone accounts for $86,262.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only hourly wage, this is what happens to payroll per week. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Hourly wage ($) | Payroll per week |
|---|---|
| $9 | $6,359 |
| $13.5 | $9,539 |
| $18 example above | $12,718 |
| $27 | $19,077 |
| $36 | $25,436 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- People
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 12.
- Hourly wage ($)
- A money amount, starting at $18.
- Normal hours per week
- A number, between 0 and 80, starting at 40.
- Overtime hours per week
- A number, between 0 and 60, starting at 4.
- Overtime multiplier
- A number, between 1 and 3, starting at 1.5.
- Labour burden (%)
- Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Payroll per week | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Payroll per year | A money figure. |
| True cost per hour | A money figure. |
| Overtime per year | A money figure. |
Time is the variable that bites
Pricing that works out on paper fails when the job takes longer than quoted. First cleans, heavily soiled sites and access problems all run over, so it is worth pricing the first visit separately from the recurring one.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.