A Chicago house-cleaning quote is high or low only relative to the hours it buys. A $90 quote for one cleaner working three hours leaves $30.00 an hour. The same $90 for two cleaners working four hours each, eight cleaner-hours in all, leaves $11.25 an hour, which is less than the $17.05 an hour the City sets as its minimum wage for employers with 4 or more employees. Divide any quote by the cleaner-hours it covers (the number of cleaners times the hours on site) before you compare it with another. Below are the local wage numbers, a table that does the division for three quotes and three visit sizes, and three questions to put to whoever sent you one.
One thing up front: Hometress does not take Chicago bookings yet. Chicago is on a waitlist, so nothing here is a Hometress Chicago quote or price. This guide starts from wages and works up to what a quote has to cover.
The wage numbers to hold up against any quote
The City of Chicago’s minimum wage page says: “As of July 1, 2026, the minimum wage in Chicago is $17.05 per hour for employers with 4 or more employees.” That is the floor for larger employers, and this guide does not say what applies to a smaller one or to a household that hires someone directly.
For what cleaners are actually paid, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). For maids and housekeeping cleaners (occupation 37-2012) in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area, the May 2025 estimates count 18,260 jobs. We pulled the figures below from BLS’s public data interface on October 25, 2026.
| Benchmark | Per hour | Source |
|---|---|---|
| City of Chicago minimum wage, employers with 4 or more employees | $17.05 | chicago.gov, from July 1, 2026 |
| 10th percentile, maids and housekeeping cleaners | $16.56 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Median | $17.94 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Mean | $19.57 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| 90th percentile | $24.88 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
These are payroll wages, not prices, and not what an independent cleaner nets. The BLS survey FAQ says the survey “does not cover the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers,” and that its wages are “straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay,” with tips counted and “employer costs of nonwage benefits” left out. The reference month is May 2025, so the figures predate the July 2026 minimum-wage increase.
Turn a quote into dollars per cleaner-hour
Cleaner-hours are the number of cleaners times the hours they are on site. Two cleaners for three hours is six cleaner-hours; one cleaner for four hours is four. Dividing a quote by that number gives what the quote leaves for each hour of one cleaner’s time. The table does it for three quotes and three visit sizes.
| Quote | 2 cleaner-hours | 3 cleaner-hours | 4 cleaner-hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| $90.00 quote | $45.00 | $30.00 | $22.50 |
| $150.00 quote | $75.00 | $50.00 | $37.50 |
| $250.00 quote | $125.00 | $83.33 | $62.50 |
The table is our own arithmetic, quote divided by cleaner-hours. It is not a market price and not a Hometress price.
Now put each cell beside the benchmarks. The $90 quote over four cleaner-hours leaves $22.50 an hour, above the BLS median of $17.94 and under the 90th percentile of $24.88. That is $4.56 an hour above the median wage for everything that is not wages. The same $90 over eight cleaner-hours leaves $11.25, which is below even the BLS 10th percentile of $16.56, so something has to give: the hours, the crew or the wage. A $250 quote over two cleaner-hours leaves $125.00 an hour, and your question there is the opposite one: what is that paying for?
What the wages alone cost, and what is left
For a visit of a given size, the wage line is cleaner-hours times an hourly wage. The next table prices it at the City minimum, the BLS median and the BLS 90th percentile.
| Cleaner-hours | At $17.05 | At $17.94 | At $24.88 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | $34.10 | $35.88 | $49.76 |
| 3 | $51.15 | $53.82 | $74.64 |
| 4 | $68.20 | $71.76 | $99.52 |
Subtract the wage line from the quote and what remains has to cover everything else the business pays for, plus any profit: employer payroll costs, insurance if it carries any, supplies and equipment, driving between jobs, scheduling and support. For three cleaner-hours at the BLS median wage ($53.82), a $90 quote leaves $36.18 for all of that, a $150 quote leaves $96.18 and a $250 quote leaves $196.18.
Read it like this. If a quote per cleaner-hour sits at or under the benchmark wage, it cannot pay that wage and also cover anything else. If it sits far above, the quote is paying for something, and you are entitled to ask what. A low quote is a prompt to ask, not proof of anything: an independent cleaner may take home less or more than a payroll wage, and the benchmark is a sanity check, not a legal test.
Three questions to ask before you compare
- How many people, for how many hours? A flat price should come with a stated crew and time, or at least an estimate. If the answer is “it depends,” ask what it depends on.
- What is included? Supplies and tools, the specific tasks, and what happens if you are not happy with the result: a re-clean or a refund, in writing.
- Who is responsible if something breaks or someone is hurt? Ask for the answer in writing from every quote you are weighing. We are not saying any independent cleaner or company does or does not carry insurance.
Our quote-comparison worksheet was written for Philadelphia customers, but its questions travel.
Independent cleaner, company or app
Independent cleaner. You are paying one person’s rate, so cleaner-hours are just hours. The quote covers their time, supplies, travel and whatever tax and insurance they choose to carry. Ask for the hourly rate and an estimate of the hours. If you hire someone directly and control how the work is done, IRS Publication 926 (2026) says: “The worker is your employee if you can control not only what work is done, but how it is done.” Employer rules may apply, so read the IRS guide before you do. Illinois has its own household-worker rules, which we did not read for this guide.
Company. The quote covers wages and the business behind them, and a crew usually means more cleaner-hours per visit. Ask how many people come and how long they plan to stay.
Booking app or marketplace. A price shown before you commit is easier to divide, and the same arithmetic and the same three questions apply. Our Philadelphia guide to independent cleaners and cleaning companies covers that choice in more detail, though it was written for Philadelphia.
Where Hometress fits
Hometress takes online bookings only in Philadelphia today. If you live in Chicago, join the Chicago waitlist; we have no Chicago price, launch date or cleaner pay to share. Chicago has no Hometress price because Chicago is not bookable.
Moving out of a Chicago rental? Our Chicago move-out checklist covers the deposit rules. Another city’s version of this question is in how much house cleaning costs in Seattle.
Common questions
Is $100 too low for a Chicago house cleaning?
Not by itself. $100 is $33.33 per cleaner-hour if one cleaner works three hours, and $20.00 if it has to cover five cleaner-hours. At the BLS median wage of $17.94, the wages alone for five cleaner-hours come to $89.70, which leaves $10.30 for everything else. Ask how many cleaner-hours the $100 buys.
Should I ask for an hourly or a flat price?
Either works if you know the hours. A flat quote is a price for a stated scope and time. An hourly quote is a rate, so ask for an estimate in hours and what happens if the visit runs over.
Do I tip on top of the quote?
We wrote a tipping guide for our Philadelphia customers, and nothing in it is specific to Chicago. BLS counts tips in the wage figures above, so they are part of the pay picture.