Minimum wage increases in 2027: what cleaning companies should do

Most of what a cleaning client pays you goes back out as wages, so a minimum wage increase lands on your margin faster than almost any other cost change. The 2027 round is already set in most states that index to inflation, and a few states are taking bigger, legislated steps. If your contracts were priced at 2026 wages, January 1 is when the gap opens.

This guide lists the 2027 minimum wage increases that state and provincial labor departments have published as of October 2026, each checked on the official page and linked. Then it walks through what a raise does to a typical janitorial contract, how to tell clients, what to put in your agreements so this is easier next year, and a short checklist to work through before payroll changes.

Which states have minimum wage increases in 2027?

As of October 22, 2026, official state pages confirm 2027 minimum wage increases in 11 states, plus Florida's September 2026 step that holds through 2027. The table shows the general rate for most adult employees. Tipped, youth, training and small-employer rates are different, so read your state's page if any of those apply to your crew.

The 2026 rates come from the same state pages or from the U.S. Department of Labor state table, last updated July 1, 2026. Percentages are our arithmetic from the two rates, rounded to one decimal place.

A few notes that change how you read the table:

• California's rate is adjusted for inflation each year. The Department of Finance certified the 2027 figure on July 31, 2026, according to the DIR release. Many California cities set their own, higher minimums, so the state figure is the floor, not the answer, for buildings in those cities.
• Michigan and Virginia are the big jumps. Each is close to a dollar or more per hour in a single step, and both land on January 1.
• Florida's $15.00 rate took effect on September 30, 2026, and FloridaCommerce says it stays in effect through December 31, 2027. If you clean in Florida and have not repriced since September, you are already paying the new rate.

Which states are not raising the minimum wage in 2027?

New York is the notable state holding flat. The New York State Department of Labor says that "On January 1, 2027, New York's minimum wage will stay the same," because one of the law's off-ramp conditions was met, which blocks the usual inflation-based increase. That leaves the general rate at $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 in the rest of the state, per the U.S. DOL table. The same page notes that the Governor is proposing a change to the off-ramp rules, so watch for an update before January.

For other states, here is where things stood when we checked:

We left out 2027 figures for these states rather than repeat numbers we could not confirm on a government page. Some will publish before January, so treat this table as a prompt to look, not as the final word.

What is the federal minimum wage in 2027?

The federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and no federal increase is scheduled. It is the rate that applies in states with no minimum wage law or with a state rate below it, as the U.S. Department of Labor state table shows for states such as Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, and for Texas, Pennsylvania and others whose state rate equals $7.25.

If you clean federal buildings, there is a change worth knowing. The Department of Labor's notice says Executive Order 14236 of March 14, 2025 revoked Executive Order 14026, the federal contractor minimum wage, and that the department is "no longer enforcing" it. Federal cleaning contracts are still covered by the Service Contract Act, under which the Department of Labor issues wage determinations "on a contract-by-contract basis" that are written into each contract. Price federal work from that wage determination, not from the state table. Our guide to government cleaning contracts covers how those bids work.

Do cities have higher minimum wages than their states?

Yes, and for a cleaning company these are often the rates that matter most, because offices and medical buildings cluster in the cities that set their own floors. When a state and a city both have a minimum, the worker gets the higher one for hours worked in that city.

Two examples from official pages:

• Seattle: the Office of Labor Standards lists $21.30 for 2026 and $22.14 for 2027, against Washington's state rate of $17.73. That is $4.41 an hour above the state floor in 2027.
• Denver: the Colorado labor department lists Denver at $19.29 for 2026 and $19.84 for 2027, against the state's $15.71. The same table lists the City of Boulder at $18.17 and Edgewater at $19.84 for 2027.

Washington L&I keeps a separate list of local rates and notes that "some local jurisdictions have higher minimum wage rates" than the state. Maine's 2027 poster flags Portland and Bangor ordinances. California has many city-level minimums. If your routes cross city limits, look up each city where you have a building, and if you are pricing work in California or Washington, assume a city rate applies until you have checked.

What do Canadian provinces pay in 2027?

Canadian provinces set their own minimums, and most index them to inflation on a fixed date each year. Here is what the provincial pages showed in October 2026:

Ontario's general rate rose from $17.60 to $17.95, about 2.0%, and that rate holds for the whole 2027 calendar year until October. For cleaning companies in Ontario, that means a Q4 conversation with clients, not a January one. British Columbia's page says the general minimum goes up each June 1 by the same percentage as the BC All-Items CPI, rounded to the nearest 5 cents, and stays put if the CPI falls.

We could not load the official pages for Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador when we checked, so we have left their figures out. The federal government's minimum wage database lists current and upcoming rates for every province and territory. You will find more on the provincial cleaning markets on our Canada locations page.

How does a minimum wage increase change a cleaning contract?

A minimum wage increase raises your cost on every account staffed at or near the floor, and because labor is most of a janitorial budget, a small wage rise becomes a noticeable price rise. CleanLink puts direct labor at 75 to 80 percent of most janitorial budgets, with total labor cost approaching 90 percent once payroll taxes and benefits are added.

Here is a worked example. The assumptions are ours, chosen to be round, and are not industry figures:

• Assumption: a Washington office contract staffed by cleaners paid the state minimum.
• Assumption: 120 labor hours a month on the account.
• Assumption: payroll taxes and insurance that scale with wages add 15% on top of wages.

That is close to $1,000 a year on one account, before anything else changes, and it repeats on every account staffed near minimum.

There is a quicker way to estimate it. If wages are 75 to 80 percent of your costs, as the CleanLink figure suggests, then a 3.5% wage rise pushes total costs up by roughly 2.6 to 2.8 percent. In Michigan, where the floor rises 9.2%, the same math gives roughly 6.9 to 7.4 percent. To hold your margin percentage, the contract price needs to move by about the same share.

Two things make the real number bigger than the example:

1. Wage compression. Your lead cleaners and supervisors earn more than minimum for a reason. When new hires suddenly earn almost what they do, you either raise them too or risk losing your best people.
2. The labor market around you. Other employers in your area move starting pay when the floor moves. If you hold your rate at the bare minimum, you compete for the same applicants with less to offer.

For the full method of turning hours into a price, see how to price commercial cleaning. If you want to see what a margin squeeze does to an account's long-term worth, the lifetime value of a janitorial client guide shows how margin and retention multiply together.

How do you tell clients about a minimum wage price increase?

Tell them in writing, early, with the reason and the new monthly figure. Clients accept a price change far more easily when it is tied to a law they have heard about and when it does not arrive in the same week as the invoice.

A short notice works best. Include:

• The new monthly price and the date it starts.
• One sentence on the cause, naming the state or city rate and its effective date, with a link to the official page.
• What stays the same: the same crew, the same schedule, the same scope.
• An offer to talk through options if the budget is fixed, such as adjusting frequency on low-traffic areas.

Send it as soon as you know your number. For the states in the table, that is now. Read your agreement before you send anything, because the notice period and the method for changing the price may already be set there.

What should an escalation clause in a cleaning contract say?

An escalation clause should let you pass on legally required wage increases automatically, with a set notice period, so a minimum wage change never turns into a negotiation. Contracts that are silent leave you two bad choices: absorb the cost or reopen the whole agreement.

Common pieces of a wage escalation clause:

• A mandated-cost pass-through. If a federal, state or local minimum wage, or a required payroll cost, increases, the contract price adjusts by the share of the price that is labor.
• An annual review date. A yearly adjustment, often tied to a published price index, for costs that are not set by law, such as supplies and insurance.
• A notice period. How many days of written notice you will give before the new price applies.
• The formula, in writing. Spell out how the adjustment is calculated so the client can check it.

Have an attorney in your state review the wording. The point is that next year's increase should be a letter the client expects, not a surprise. Our list of janitorial bidding mistakes covers what happens when this clause is missing, and how to bid a janitorial job shows where labor cost sits inside a bid.

What should cleaning companies do before January 1, 2027?

Work through this list in the next few weeks, while there is still time to give clients proper notice.

• Confirm your state rate on the official labor department page, and every city or county rate where you have a building.
• List every employee paid below the new rate, and every employee within a dollar or two of it.
• Decide how much to raise the people just above minimum to keep your pay steps meaningful.
• Recalculate labor cost for each account using the new wages and your real payroll burden.
• Mark the accounts where the margin falls below your target, starting with the largest and the thinnest.
• Read each contract for an escalation clause, a notice period and a renewal date.
• Send written price notices to affected clients, with the reason and the new monthly figure.
• Update your bid template so every new quote from now on uses 2027 wages.
• Put next year's dates in your calendar: California, Colorado and Maine published their 2027 rates between late July and September 2026, Oregon sets its figure by April 30, and Ontario's next change is October 1, 2027.
• Add a wage escalation clause to every new and renewing contract.

If you work in New York, the flat 2027 rate gives you a year to put escalation language into your contracts before indexing resumes.

Should you grow while wages rise?

Yes, if the new work is priced at 2027 wages from the start. Repricing old accounts is slow and some clients will push back. New accounts carry no such baggage, because the first quote already reflects the new floor, and every new building close to your existing routes spreads supervision and drive time over more billable hours.

If you are planning to add accounts in 2027, LeadWharf sends exclusive, pay-per-lead commercial cleaning leads: a named decision-maker in your area who has said they want regular cleaning at the frequency you work to, sent to you alone. You book the walk-through and write the quote at 2027 wages, so the margin is right from the first invoice. If that would help, book a call and we will talk through your territory.