Workers' Comp for House Cleaning and Maid Services in Florida

Workers' Comp for the Florida Residential Cleaning Business

Residential cleaning is a people business. A typical Florida maid service sends teams of two or three cleaners into several homes a day: recurring weekly and biweekly cleans, move-in and move-out jobs, deep cleans, and turnovers for vacation rentals. The work looks light from the outside, but cleaners spend all day bending, kneeling, reaching, scrubbing, carrying supplies up stairs and driving from house to house. Those motions produce the strains, slips and repetitive motion injuries that workers' comp exists to cover.

This page is for companies that clean private homes. If your business cleans offices, stores, schools or other commercial buildings, the classification and risks are different, and our janitorial companies page covers that side. Many cleaning businesses do some of both, and we explain below how that is handled.

The Class Codes for Maid and House Cleaning Services

Code 0917, Residential Cleaning Services by Contractor: Inside, is the code for businesses that clean the inside of private homes for customers: dusting, vacuuming, mopping, kitchens, bathrooms, changing linens and similar housekeeping. Travel between homes is part of the job and is included. Exterior work such as pressure washing or outside window washing is classified separately, so if you offer those add-ons, tell the underwriter. See our pressure washing page for that question.

If you also have commercial cleaning contracts, those cleaners may belong under code 9014, Janitorial Services by Contractors. When the rules allow it and your payroll records show which employees worked which type of job, payroll can be divided between the two codes. Your office scheduler or bookkeeper, if they work in a separate office and do not clean, is usually reported under code 8810 at a much lower rate.

One clarification that trips people up: a maid or housekeeper hired directly by a homeowner is a domestic worker of that household and is not rated under the contractor code. Code 0917 is for cleaning companies that employ cleaners and send them to customers' homes.

Who Needs Coverage: The 4-Employee Rule

Residential cleaning is a non-construction business in Florida. The thresholds are:

• Non-construction (house cleaning and maid services): coverage is required once you have 4 or more employees, including part-time employees.
• Construction: required from 1 employee. Does not apply to residential cleaning.
• Agriculture: 6 regular or 12 seasonal workers. Does not apply here.

The part-time rule is where many maid services get caught. A company with two full-time cleaners and two part-timers who work Saturdays has 4 employees and must carry coverage. Cleaning businesses often grow by adding part-time staff a few at a time, so it is easy to cross the line without noticing. Count every person on payroll, not full-time equivalents.

Owners who are corporate officers of a non-construction business can elect out of coverage for themselves. That election does not cover anyone else. If the owner is out but the company has 4 cleaners, the cleaners still need to be covered. Read more about officer exemptions in Florida.

Paying cleaners as 1099 contractors is common in this industry, and it is risky. A cleaner is not an independent contractor just because you file a 1099. If you assign the homes, set the schedule, provide the supplies and checklist, and the cleaner works only for you, Florida may treat that person as your employee, and they count toward your 4. See workers' comp for 1099 contractors.

What a Maid Service Pays: Worked Example

Using the live 2026 Florida rate, here is a simple example for a growing maid service:

This is not a quote. Experience mod, discounts, assessments and program pricing change the final number. Put your real payroll in the instant quote tool for an itemized price.

What Drives the Price for Cleaning Companies

1. Payroll. Premium is charged on wages. Bonuses and overtime count as payroll.
2. Correct code split. Keeping office staff on 8810 and commercial work on its own code, where the rules allow, keeps you from paying the cleaner rate on everyone.
3. Turnover. New cleaners get hurt more often than experienced ones. Training on lifting, ladder use and chemical handling pays off in fewer claims.
4. Driving. Crews drive between homes all day. Auto accidents during work hours are workers' comp claims, so driver selection matters.
5. Chemicals. Mixing cleaning products can cause respiratory and skin injuries. Standardized products and instructions reduce that risk.
6. Experience mod. Once your premium is large enough to be rated, your claims history moves your rate up or down. See how the experience mod works.

Stop-Work Orders and Penalties

Enforcement in Florida is not limited to construction sites. If the Division of Workers' Compensation finds a non-construction business with 4 or more employees and no coverage, it can issue a stop-work order that halts the entire business until coverage is in place and the order is released. For a maid service, that means canceling every scheduled clean, which can cost you customers who do not come back.

The penalty is generally calculated from the premium you should have paid for your uninsured payroll over a look-back period, multiplied, with a minimum amount, and continuing to work under an order adds daily penalties. An uninsured injury is a separate risk: without coverage, an injured cleaner's medical bills and lost wages can become your problem. Our stop-work order guide has the details.

How Buying Through a PEO Works

We place cleaning companies with a Florida PEO. In a PEO, your cleaners are co-employed: you still hire, schedule and manage them, and the PEO processes payroll and covers them under its master workers' comp policy. For a small cleaning business, that has some practical advantages:

• Pay as you go. Comp is billed with each payroll on the wages you actually paid, so adding or losing part-timers adjusts your cost automatically.
• No large deposit and no year-end audit bill for growth you did not estimate.
• Payroll handled. Paychecks, withholding and payroll taxes are processed with your comp, which helps if you are moving cleaners from 1099 to W-2.
• Proof of coverage for property managers and vacation rental owners who ask for it.

Compare the options on PEO vs standard workers' comp and pay-as-you-go workers' comp.

House Cleaning and Maid Service FAQs

Related Resources

• Workers' comp for commercial janitorial companies
• Construction vs non-construction rules in Florida
• Workers' comp and 1099 workers
• How much workers' comp costs in Florida
• Payroll estimator
• Florida stop-work orders

Last reviewed: November 2026, by Cheap Workers Comp Florida, licensed Florida agency DFS #L077476. Rates shown are the 2026 Florida filed rates from our rate table and are for illustration; your price depends on your payroll, codes, experience and underwriting.