Local pay is the single biggest piece
Across the St. George area, people in building cleaning and maintenance work averaged $18.18 an hour in May 2025, compared with $19.66 nationally. That figure is what the worker takes home, not what a company bills. A provider's rate also has to cover supplies, equipment, insurance, supervision, payroll taxes and profit.
Source: Occupational Employment and Wages in St. George - May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figures are the mean hourly wage for building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations.
Walk through the math
Picture a two-person crew in your building for three hours after close. That comes to 6 labor hours. Multiply by $18.18, the average hourly pay in the St. George area, and the paychecks alone run $109.08, with no overhead counted yet. So when a quote lands well under the local going rate, something is giving: either skipped tasks, fewer hours or an uninsured crew.
How providers price a job
| Pricing model | When it is used |
|---|---|
| Flat monthly rate | The go-to for recurring contracts. The provider estimates hours, settles the scope and bills the same amount each month. |
| Per visit | Common for weekly service, anything less often than that, and one-off deep cleans. |
| Hourly | Used for day porter shifts, odd projects and jobs where nobody can call the hours upfront. |
| Per square foot | Standard for post-construction cleans and floor jobs like extraction or strip and wax. |
What moves the price
- Floor area
- A bigger footprint stretches every visit longer, and the hours spent on site are the single largest chunk of what you pay.
- How often the crew visits
- A nightly schedule rings up a higher monthly total than a weekly one, though the per-visit cost usually drifts down as the cadence gets heavier.
- Kind of facility
- An exam room or a hotel back-of-house asks more from a crew than a quiet title office, and the products and routines are different too.
- Floor surface
- Carpet, VCT and sealed concrete each need their own gear. Fine iron-red dust from outside grinds down finishes, so the periodic strip and wax usually lands on its own line.
- Access and timing
- A tight window after lockup, an alarm sequence and a floor of locked suites all shape how the crew moves through the night.
Ways to trim the bill
- Clean lighter-use areas less often. Some only need a weekly pass instead of nightly.
- Have recurring service and the periodic floor jobs priced on separate lines.
- Clear a path for the crew and give them a defined window. Paying people to wait is paying for nothing.
- Get the scope in writing with a frequency next to every task. Then grade every quote against the same list.