Workers' comp for cleaning businesses: required at one employee or five, depending on the state

Cleaning is hard on the body: wet floors, step stools, a heavy vacuum up three flights of stairs, chemicals in a small bathroom with the window shut. The carriers' own examples read like a normal week: Insureon's is a maid who slips on a wet floor and breaks a bone, Progressive's is an allergic reaction to a new cleaning solution, and Simply Business lists a pulled muscle from lifting supplies.

Workers' comp pays the medical bills and part of the lost wages when that happens. Insureon notes that most policies also include employer's liability, which covers lawsuits over workplace injuries. Two questions are left: when your state makes it mandatory, and whether to buy it for yourself. Helpers who are "subs" and jobs for a single family change the answer.

Thresholds run from one employee to five

There's no national rule. Each state sets its own threshold, and a cleaner with two part-time helpers can be required to carry coverage in one state and not in the next. Grouped by threshold, from each state's own agency page:

Required once you have	States	Sources
Any employee	California, Illinois (even part-time), Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts	CA, IL, PA, OH, NY, NJ, MA
Three or more employees	Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia (more than two), Michigan (or one employee working 35 or more hours a week for 13 weeks)	GA, NC, VA, MI
Four or more employees	Florida (non-construction)	FL
Five or more employees	Tennessee (non-construction)	TN
Optional for most private employers	Texas	TX

Two of these states run the insurance themselves. In Ohio, coverage comes through the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, and Washington's Labor and Industries says plainly that the state does not allow private workers' comp. In Texas, going without coverage is legal for most private employers, but the Texas Department of Insurance says those employers lose protection from lawsuits by injured workers and must file notices.

The requirements page has the full state table, including domestic worker and owner rules, and Arizona, whose statute sets no headcount threshold. Registration and license rules are a separate question, covered on the cleaning business license page.

Part-time and weekend help counts

Cleaning businesses grow one helper at a time, often part-time: someone for Saturday move-outs, a sister who comes along for big deep cleans. Many states count those people.

• Illinois requires coverage if you have one employee, even a part-time employee.
• Georgia counts three or more regular employees, part-time or full time, and corporate officers who've exempted themselves still count toward the three.
• Virginia says an employee is viewed broadly, including part-time, seasonal and temporary workers and working family members.
• Michigan counts part-time employees toward its three, and separately catches a single employee who works 35 hours or more a week for 13 weeks.

If your headcount swings between two and four over the year, don't guess how your state counts it. Ask the state agency or your agent and keep the answer in writing.

Solo cleaners: usually exempt, often worth it anyway

Several states say outright that the owner isn't counted. Florida doesn't count sole proprietors unless they elect coverage, Georgia doesn't treat sole proprietors and partners as employees unless they opt in, Tennessee doesn't count owners of sole proprietorships, LLCs or partnerships, and Michigan says a sole proprietor is never an employee. If it's just you, the law in those states generally doesn't require a policy.

Insureon still recommends it. Its cost page says workers' comp is recommended for sole proprietors, "as health insurance plans can deny claims" tied to work injuries. Its house cleaning page makes the same point, saying a policy can cover medical bills and part of lost wages even for a self-employed cleaner. ERGO NEXT's cleaning page adds that owner's coverage can help protect you too.

An illustration of why it matters: you strain your back hauling a full mop bucket up a condo staircase and can't work for three weeks. Your health plan may question a work injury, and nobody pays you for the cleans you miss. Workers' comp is the policy for that gap. The solo cleaner guide weighs it against everything else a one-person business needs.

There's a second reason. Buildings and commercial clients ask to see workers' comp on the certificate. Evo, a Los Angeles HOA, asks every vendor working in its units for evidence of workers' comp at statutory limits. If you have no employees, ask the building what proof it accepts before you show up. The certificate guide covers those requests.

Subcontractors and 1099 cleaners

Paying a helper on a 1099 doesn't settle whether they're your employee. The IRS weighs three kinds of evidence: behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship, and says there's no "magic" number of factors that decides it. In cleaning terms, if you assign the houses, set the schedule, hand over your checklist, and supply the vacuum and the products, that looks a lot like control.

Workers' comp law has its own version. Virginia includes subcontractors' employees when it counts your total, and says this applies regardless of whether the subcontractor has its own coverage.

If you sub out a service to a separate business, like carpet shampooing or window washing, get the sub's certificate before they start. biBERK notes that subcontractors are typically required to carry their own liability insurance. A workable rule: if someone cleans your clients' homes under your direction, treat them as an employee for insurance purposes.

When a cleaner works for one household

Some cleaners don't run a business with a client list. They work 30 or 40 hours a week for one family. In several states, that family is the employer, and the workers' comp duty sits with them.

State	Rule for a household employing a domestic worker
New York	Coverage is required if the domestic worker is employed 40 or more hours a week; the Board names maids and housekeepers, and says a homeowner's workers' comp rider doesn't cover them
Massachusetts	Coverage is required for domestic employees working at least 16 hours a week
Michigan	Required once a domestic worker works 35 hours or more a week for 13 weeks or longer
Ohio	Certain domestic household employers must apply for coverage
Pennsylvania	Domestic workers are excluded unless they elect coverage with the Department
Tennessee	Domestic servants are exempt

Care.com's HomePay service takes the same view from the family's side. It treats the family as the employer, and says its partner writes workers' comp for families that employ a nanny, senior caregiver or housekeeper. Care.com also says homeowners policies don't cover household employees, with one exception it names: California, where it says homeowners policies "have a level of workers' comp coverage built in." That's Care.com's statement, not the state's, and it sits oddly next to New York's rule that the homeowner's rider doesn't cover domestic workers. Both can be true, because they're different states with different policies.

If you clean 40 hours a week for one New York family, ask them whether they carry workers' comp for you, and ask to see it. If you run your own business with several clients, the household rules don't shift the duty; your own business's coverage is the one that matters.

What it costs, and why the figures don't line up

Source	Monthly premium	Who it describes
Insureon, house cleaning	$100 median ($1,204 a year)	House cleaning businesses buying through Insureon, most with fewer than five employees
Insureon, all cleaning	$114 median ($1,364 a year)	Among commercial cleaners, 45% pay under $100 a month and 74% under $200
MoneyGeek	$92 per employee (house cleaning), $93 (maid service)	Modeled averages for businesses with one to four employees
Simply Business, maid service	$132	Called a median in the text, but its footnote says it's the 10th percentile of its policies

The figures aren't the same kind of number. MoneyGeek's is per employee, so a three-person crew multiplies it. Insureon's is per policy, whatever the headcount. Insureon says the price depends on your location, how many employees you have and the type of work they do. Insureon doesn't publish a separate figure for a policy that covers only the owner. The cost page has prices for the other policies.

Before you hire

• Know your state's threshold and how it counts part-time, seasonal and family help. The requirements page has the full table.
• Describe the work accurately on the application. Residential cleaning, carpet shampooing and post-construction cleanup aren't the same job.
• Collect a certificate from every subcontractor before they start, and keep it with their 1099.
• Revisit coverage when you hire, not at renewal.