Prices for commercial cleaning rose 5.7% in the past year, well above overall inflation.
What janitorial companies charge their business customers rose 5.7% from September 2025 to September 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index for janitorial services. Overall consumer prices rose 3.7% over the same year.
Janitorial prices have outpaced overall inflation in 9 of the 9 months of 2026 so far. Over five years, they’re up 26.2%, compared with 22.8% for consumer prices overall.
Why cleaning contracts cost more
Wages are usually a cleaning company’s biggest cost, and hiring is hard. In September, 32% of small businesses said they had job openings they couldn’t fill, and 26% named the quality or availability of workers as their single biggest problem, according to the National Federation of Independent Business survey reported by CFO Dive. Supplies, insurance and fuel for getting crews to job sites add to the bill.
What this means if you run a cleaning business
If your contracts don’t have an annual price increase built in, you may be absorbing higher wages and supply costs yourself. Many cleaning companies add a yearly adjustment tied to a published index like this one, or reprice when a contract renews. Make sure your coverage keeps up as you add staff and clients. See what cleaning business insurance in Florida costs, or compare cleaning business insurance in Kentucky.
How we got these numbers
The janitorial figure is the BLS Producer Price Index for janitorial services (industry code 561720, series PCU561720561720), which tracks the prices cleaning companies receive for services such as office and building cleaning. It doesn’t cover what households pay for house cleaning. We compare it with the Consumer Price Index for all items (CUUR0000SA0). Both are not seasonally adjusted. BLS revises the latest four months of PPI data. Data pulled October 18, 2026.