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Commercial cleaning and janitorial insurance in New Jersey
Commercial Cleaning Insurance Group provides commercial cleaning and janitorial insurance in New Jersey, from general liability and janitorial bonds to workers' comp and lost-key coverage, quoted with 12+ A-rated carriers.
Montclair's public library put a number on it in 2025: $19.40 an hour plus $5.55 in benefits for anyone cleaning its building. New Jersey sets a prevailing building-services wage for cleaning on state-owned and state-leased property, and some local buyers apply it too. Add sales tax on janitorial work and an ABC test for 1099 crews, and a Newark or Trenton bid asks a lot of your paperwork.
Licensed in New Jersey · License #3003521379
- Since 2003
- 12+ A-rated carriers
- 28 states
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Licensed in 28 states · NPN 7642818 · Since 2003
New Jersey's paperwork for a cleaning company, from NJ-REG to the BRC
A New Jersey cleaning company files its entity, registers for state taxes, collects sales tax on janitorial invoices and keeps a Business Registration Certificate ready for public bids. There's no state license for commercial cleaning. The BRC is proof that you're registered with the State, not a trade license.
Entity filing and tax registration
You form or register the business with the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services and complete the NJ-REG tax registration. Anyone doing business in New Jersey files Form NJ-REG at least 15 business days before starting business, and that registration is what lets you collect sales tax.
Public work adds the Business Registration Certificate. State law (N.J.S.A. 52:32-44) makes it a condition of winning a public contract, and the State's own janitorial requests for proposals have made a missing BRC cause for automatic rejection.
The local layer shows up in payroll. Newark and Jersey City each charge employers a 1% tax on payroll, covered in the city notes below. We didn't review other municipal business licenses, so ask the town clerk where your crews work.
Sales tax on janitorial invoices
New Jersey taxes cleaning. The Division of Taxation's sales tax guide (bulletin S&U-4) lists janitorial cleaning services as taxable, alongside carpet cleaning and window washing, at the 6.625% state rate. You collect it on janitorial charges once you're registered. Confirm the current rule with the New Jersey Division of Taxation or your CPA.
Prevailing wage on public building services
The State Building Service Contracts Act covers contracts to furnish building services for property the State owns or leases. "Building services" includes sweeping, vacuuming, floor cleaning, restroom cleaning, trash collection and window cleaning. Each contract must state the prevailing wage for that work, workers must be paid at least that rate, and the rate is adjusted every year. Work already under the general Prevailing Wage Act is excluded.
Newark Liberty International Airport has its own version. Since September 1, 2021, the Healthy Terminals Act has required at least a prevailing rate, plus a health-and-welfare amount and paid leave set each August 1, for workers who spend at least half their workweek at the airport or its train station. Workers can sue for unpaid amounts, and violations carry penalties of up to $250 for the first and $500 for each one after. The Department of Labor's wage and hour division explains how both laws apply.
Background checks for school work
N.J.S.A. 18A:6-7.1 bars a school district from employing, or contracting for the paid services of, a custodian, a school maintenance worker or anyone else in a position involving regular contact with pupils until a state and FBI criminal history check comes back without a disqualifying offense. The Commissioner of Education has held that the rule applies to the positions it lists without exceptions, and custodians are on that list. Plan on clearing every cleaner you place in a school, and ask the district how it runs the check before you schedule a first shift.
Workers' comp for New Jersey cleaning crews starts with worker one
New Jersey expects comp from nearly every employer. For a corporation, the requirement starts with a single person doing work for the company, even when that person is an officer. An unincorporated business (sole proprietor, partnership or LLC) crosses the line once anybody outside its ownership group picks up a mop.
That makes the officer rule the trap for small companies. If you incorporated, you and your spouse clean the buildings and nobody else is on payroll, New Jersey still treats the corporation as needing coverage. Owners of unincorporated companies are exempt only while they're the sole workers.
Skipping comp is a disorderly persons offense, and a fourth-degree crime when it's willful. Civil penalties can reach $5,000 for an uninsured company's first ten days, with up to another $5,000 for every further ten-day period. Bankruptcy doesn't wipe them out, liability for failing to insure can reach corporate officers individually, and after an injury the officers, partners or LLC members can be directly liable for the benefits.
New Jersey uses its own rating bureau rather than the national one, so the class code on your policy may not match what you saw in another state. Your carrier and the bureau make that call. The bigger audit question is who counts as your employee, because New Jersey's wage and hour, wage payment and unemployment laws presume a paid worker is an employee unless all three parts of the ABC test are met. A cleaner doing your core work inside your clients' buildings has a hard time passing part B. More detail is on the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation site.
The State of New Jersey's insurance terms, line by line
The clearest picture of what New Jersey buyers expect is the State's own contract language. The Division of Purchase and Property's Combined Standard Terms and Conditions, revised June 3, 2025, apply to state contracts including janitorial service. Section 4.2 asks for:
- occurrence-form general liability of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence, with the State, its officers and employees added as additional insureds through a blanket endorsement
- auto liability of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence covering any automobile the contractor uses
- New Jersey workers' comp, plus employer's liability of $1,000,000 each occurrence, $1,000,000 disease per employee and $1,000,000 disease aggregate
- insurers rated A-VIII or better by A.M. Best, and 30 days' notice of cancellation
The procedure matters as much as the limits. No work begins until certificates are on file. Each certificate shows the contract number and lists the Division's Contract Compliance & Audit Unit as holder, and renewal certificates are due within 30 days of expiration.
Older State janitorial bids also asked for 10% performance security, which guarantees you'll finish the contract. That's different from a janitorial bond, which answers for theft by your staff in a client's building. Our guide to cleaning contract insurance requirements explains blanket AI wording and how to read these exhibits.
Five coverages New Jersey contracts ask about first
General liability
State terms want $1 million per occurrence on an occurrence form, with blanket additional-insured status for the State. General liability for cleaners
Workers' comp and employer's liability
Required from the first worker, including corporate officers, with $1 million employer's liability on state contracts. Comp for cleaning companies
Commercial auto
State contracts ask for $1 million covering any automobile your company uses, which can reach a supervisor's own car. Auto coverage for crews
Janitorial bond
Library, school and office clients often want proof that theft by your staff is covered, which a liability policy usually won't pay. Janitorial bonds explained
Employment practices liability
Prevailing-wage crews, airport rules and ABC-test reviews mean more employee disputes; EPLI handles some, though most policies exclude wage claims. EPLI for cleaning crews
New Jersey exposures that show up after the contract starts
Reclassified 1099 crews
Under its wage and unemployment laws, New Jersey presumes workers are employees unless the employer proves all three ABC factors. The Department of Labor can investigate, assess penalties and issue stop-work orders under N.J.S.A. 34:1A-1.17 to 1.19. A crew paid on 1099s can end up reclassified onto your comp audit and your payroll records in the same review. Talk to an employment attorney before you set up a crew that way.
Bidding public work at private-market wages
State-owned buildings and the Newark airport carry prevailing wage and benefit rates. Workers can sue for unpaid amounts plus costs and attorney's fees, and administrative penalties apply on top. Wage claims usually aren't insurable, so the protection here is bid math: price the posted rate, not your usual night-crew wage.
A certificate gap that stops billing
On state work, nobody starts until certificates are filed, the AI endorsement has to be blanket, and renewal certificates are due within 30 days of expiration. A lapsed policy or a missing endorsement can freeze your invoices.
Example scenario: a contractor's GL renews, but the new certificate never reaches the audit unit, and the agency holds two months of payments until it does.
Five New Jersey markets and the local rule in each
Newark
The city levies a 1% employer payroll tax on wages for work performed in Newark, filed quarterly. Cleaners who spend at least half their week at Newark Liberty or its rail station fall under the Healthy Terminals Act's wage and benefit floor. Both raise the payroll behind your comp premium.
Jersey City
Ordinance 18-133, given final approval in November 2018, puts a 1% tax on employers' gross payroll to fund city schools, filed quarterly. Employers with quarterly payroll under $2,500 are exempt, and the wages of Jersey City residents are exempt. Night crews in Exchange Place towers carry that cost alongside your office cleaning coverage.
Trenton
Cleaning contracts for state-owned or state-leased offices in the capital carry the building-services prevailing wage. The State's standard terms also require $1M liability with the State as additional insured, $1M auto and $1M/$1M/$1M employer's liability before work starts, so line up your GL endorsements early.
Montclair
The public library's 2025 cleaning bid covered a 55,000-square-foot main library on three floors and a 4,000-square-foot branch. It required five consecutive years of similar work and set pay at $19.40 an hour plus $5.55 in benefits, with paid vacation and twelve paid holidays. Compare that against our bid checklist.
Hamilton Township
The State's janitorial bid for the Hamilton Complex automatically rejected proposals without a BRC and required 10% performance security, an ownership disclosure and an affirmative action form. The document is from 2005, but the BRC rule still governs public contracts. Keep your bond paperwork and BRC in one folder.
What moves a New Jersey cleaning company's premium
We won't guess at New Jersey prices on this page, but we can show you what moves them.
The wage floor keeps climbing. New Jersey's minimum wage for most employers rose to $15.92 an hour on January 1, 2026, and the Department of Labor has set it at $16.48 from January 1, 2027 ($16.25 for seasonal employers and those with fewer than six employees). It's adjusted for inflation every year. Because comp premium is figured on payroll, each raise flows into your deposit premium and your next audit.
Public accounts raise payroll further. At Montclair's 2025 rate of $24.95 an hour in wages and benefits, one prevailing-wage building can carry far more payroll per hour than a private office account of the same size.
Limits matter too. A crew driving between Edison and Paterson accounts needs auto limits that satisfy every client, and state work sets employer's liability at $1 million.
Your price depends on the payroll in each class code, your annual sales, the kinds of buildings you clean, how much specialty and chemical work you do, the vehicles your crews drive, your claims history and the limits your contracts require. For how the pieces add up, read what cleaning business insurance costs.
Our New Jersey license
Commercial Cleaning Insurance Group is a brand of The Allen Thomas Group, licensed in New Jersey (License #3003521379, NPN 7642818).
New Jersey requests go to our licensed team, which reads your bid exhibits and talks with you before preparing a quote.
New Jersey cleaning contractor FAQ
Do you insure commercial cleaning companies in Newark and across New Jersey?
Do I need to charge sales tax for janitorial services in New Jersey?
Do I need a Business Registration Certificate to bid on New Jersey cleaning contracts?
What is the prevailing wage for janitorial work on New Jersey public buildings?
Can I pay my cleaners as 1099 contractors in New Jersey?
Do cleaning company employees need background checks to clean New Jersey schools?
Keep going: nearby states and New Jersey guides
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