Median wages run $12.68/hr in Shreveport-Bossier City against $22.40/hr in Longview-Kelso; loaded for burden and relief cover, that is $17.33/hr versus $30.61/hr. The bill rate each market needs to carry that payroll spans $25.48/hr to $45.01/hr — $19.53/hr apart on an identical scope. One national rate card cannot serve both ends: the $33-$38/hr band holds Omaha's $34.40 needed rate and its $4,027 monthly price, but the cheapest market needs $7.52 less than the $33 floor and the dearest needs $7.01 more than the $38 ceiling. On a monthly basis the identical footprint costs $0.229 to $0.405 per square foot. Annualized, the extremes are $27,432 apart on one store: a flat national rate carries excess margin at the cheap end and falls short of the needed rate at the dear end — and the short end is where crew hours get trimmed first.
What to do with it. Price every bid against the local needed rate, not a national card: the same spec costs $25.48/hr to deliver in the cheapest market and $45.01/hr in the dearest, so a flat quote at the $33-$38 band runs $7.52/hr rich in one and $7.01/hr short in the other.
The board this was computed from
One store — 13,000 sq ft, four restrooms, five nights a week, 117.1 crew hours a month — priced against the median janitorial wage in 393 US metros. The building is identical in every row, so everything that moves is the local labor market.
| Market | BLS median | Loaded | Rate needed | Per month | $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest on the mainlandShreveport-Bossier City, LA | $12.68 | $17.33 | $25.48 | $2,983 | $0.229 |
| Median marketOmaha, NE-IA | $17.12 | $23.39 | $34.40 | $4,027 | $0.310 |
| DearestLongview-Kelso, WA | $22.40 | $30.61 | $45.01 | $5,269 | $0.405 |
Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (metropolitan areas), May 2025. Hours from the crew-hour method; the rate each market needs is the loaded wage carried at a 68% labor share, which at the national median lands in the middle of the $33–$38 band on the costs page.