Cleaning contracts Massachusetts commercial cleaning companies can bid on

Massachusetts has 351 cities and towns, and almost every one of them, plus its school district, buys custodial service on its own. That is good news for a small cleaning company, because no single central buyer controls the work.

• State agencies post solicitations on COMMBUYS, the state's eProcurement system run by the Operational Services Division. Register as a vendor, choose the janitorial and custodial service codes, and matching bids reach your inbox. The Operational Services Division also runs statewide contracts that agencies and many towns can buy from without a new bid.
• Cities, towns, counties and regional school districts buy under the Uniform Procurement Act, Chapter 30B of the General Laws. Larger service contracts have to be advertised and awarded through sealed bids or proposals, smaller ones through written quotes, so a local company that is known to the facilities director gets the call on the small jobs.
• Cleaning and maintenance of state office buildings, and of space the Commonwealth rents, falls under the Massachusetts prevailing wage law for building services (Chapter 149, Section 27H). On those contracts you pay the wage rate the state publishes for the job, so price from the posted rate sheet, not from your normal pay rate. State guidance reads this section as covering state buildings, not town halls.
• The Supplier Diversity Office certifies minority-owned, women-owned and other diverse businesses, and the Small Business Purchasing Program sets aside smaller state purchases for registered small businesses. Both are free to apply for and both are worth having before you bid state work.
• Transit and authority buyers, including the MBTA and Massport at Logan Airport, run their own procurement for stations, garages, terminals and offices.
• Public universities, such as the University of Massachusetts campuses and the state universities, contract out part of their building services and post the bids themselves.

Federal custodial work in Massachusetts comes from Hanscom Air Force Base, the Natick Soldier Systems Center, Joint Base Cape Cod, Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Coast Guard units in Boston and the VA medical centers in Boston, Bedford and Brockton, all posted on SAM.gov under NAICS 561720 with Service Contract Act wages. Our guide to winning government cleaning contracts covers registration and set-asides. On Growth and higher, Janitorial matches public-sector requests to your area.

Labor is the biggest line. The Massachusetts minimum wage is 15.00 USD an hour in 2026, unchanged since January 2023, but in Greater Boston few cleaning companies can staff a night crew at the minimum, so price from the wage you really pay. A bill to raise the minimum is pending in the legislature, so a multi-year contract should carry a wage escalation clause.

Payroll burden is higher than in most states. Employers pay into Paid Family and Medical Leave, every employee earns one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked under the Earned Sick Time law (paid at employers with 11 or more employees), and workers' compensation is required from the first employee. If you subcontract buildings, remember that Massachusetts judges independent contractor status with one of the strictest ABC tests in the country, which our janitorial subcontracting guide explains.

The janitorial bid calculator builds the price from square footage, facility type, frequency, supplies, overhead and your margin. For Massachusetts bids, also price:

• Winter entry mat service, salt neutralizing and lobby carpet extraction from November to March.
• The posted prevailing wage on any state office building or state-rented space.
• Parking, tolls and travel time for crews working downtown Boston and Cambridge.
• Background checks and badging for lab buildings, hospitals and federal sites.

On Pro, you set your own production rates and wage rates per area, so a Boston bid and a Springfield bid each use the right numbers.