If a cleaning contractor slips a mop bucket across your lobby and a visitor falls, or one of their crew gets hurt stripping your floors, the question of who pays comes down to one thing: what that contractor carried for insurance.
When you hire a commercial cleaning or floor care company in Pennsylvania, the commercial cleaning insurance requirements that protect you are general liability, workers’ compensation, a janitorial bond, and commercial auto, backed by a current certificate of insurance that names your business.
Pennsylvania does not license janitorial contractors, so the burden of checking coverage falls on you, the business hiring them. A contractor who cannot hand you proof of the right policies is a contractor whose risk becomes your risk the moment they walk in the door.
Why a Contractor’s Insurance Is Really Your Problem
When something goes wrong on your property, the injured party looks for someone to pay. If your contractor is uninsured or underinsured, that search lands on you, the property owner or tenant, because you are the one with the building and the assets.
A freshly stripped and waxed floor is one of the highest slip-and-fall risk windows a facility has. If a finish goes down wrong and someone falls, the resulting claim is exactly what a contractor’s general liability policy exists to absorb. Without it, you are absorbing it instead. This is the same exposure behind the slip hazards a poorly applied wax job creates, and it is why insurance is not paperwork, it is the thing standing between an accident and your bank account.
Hiring an uninsured contractor does not save money. It moves the risk onto you.
The Four Commercial Cleaning Insurance Requirements to Demand
Treat these as the floor, not the ceiling. Any commercial contractor working in a PA facility should carry all four.
General liability
This covers third-party bodily injury and property damage: the visitor who slips, the display case a buffer knocks over, the wall a machine gouges. Pennsylvania does not mandate general liability at the state level, but clients, landlords, and lease agreements almost always do, and you should too.
Common commercial limits run $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Some jurisdictions set their own floor: Philadelphia requires contractors to carry at least $500,000 per occurrence. For floor work in an occupied building, $1 million per occurrence is a reasonable minimum to ask for.
Workers’ compensation
This is the one Pennsylvania law actually forces. Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, every employer with at least one employee, full-time, part-time, or seasonal, must carry workers’ compensation coverage. There is no small-employer exemption and no waiting threshold.
Coverage runs through a licensed carrier or the State Workers’ Insurance Fund, and an employer who skips it is exposed to lawsuits and even criminal prosecution by the commonwealth. If a contractor’s crew is not covered and one of them is injured on your floor, an injured worker can come after the property owner.
This is the coverage to verify first, because it is both legally required and the one that most directly reaches you.
Janitorial bond
A janitorial bond, also called a surety or fidelity bond, reimburses you if a contractor’s employee steals from your facility. Cleaning crews work after hours with keys and access, so this is real protection, not a formality. Premiums are modest, often around $115 a year for a small to midsize company, which means there is no good excuse for a contractor not to carry one.
Commercial auto
If the contractor drives equipment and crews to your site, commercial auto covers accidents involving their vehicles. It matters most when a company van is parked at or backing into your property. Annual premiums typically run from about $1,200 to $2,800 per vehicle, so any established contractor will have it.
For a fuller breakdown of how these policies and bonds work together, our guide on what insurance and bonding a floor contractor should carry goes coverage by coverage.
How to Actually Verify Coverage (Not Just Take Their Word)
A contractor saying “we’re fully insured” means nothing until you see the document. Verifying it takes three steps and about ten minutes.
- Ask for a Certificate of Insurance (COI). This one-page summary lists the contractor’s policies, carriers, limits, and effective dates. A legitimate contractor produces it without hesitation. Have it sent directly from their insurance agent or carrier rather than as a forwarded PDF, which can be edited or expired.
- Require an additional insured endorsement naming your business. Being listed as an additional insured on the contractor’s general liability policy extends that coverage to protect you if a claim arises from their work. A COI alone does not do this; the endorsement does. Ask for it in writing before work starts.
- Check the dates and the limits. Confirm the policies are active for your service window, not lapsed, and that the limits meet what you asked for. Workers’ compensation should appear on the certificate alongside the liability coverage.
If a contractor stalls, sends a blurry screenshot, or cannot get their agent to issue a certificate naming you, treat that as the answer. The questions to ask before you hire a floor care contractor should always include this one, and the response tells you a lot about how the rest of the job will go.
What Pennsylvania Does and Does Not Require
Pennsylvania has no statewide license for commercial cleaning or janitorial contractors. There is no state board issuing a “cleaning contractor license,” which means anyone can print business cards and start bidding. That absence is exactly why your own verification matters more here than the state’s.
What Pennsylvania does enforce is workers’ compensation. The commonwealth runs its own State Workers’ Insurance Fund and prosecutes employers who operate without coverage. So while the state will not vet your contractor’s competence or liability coverage for you, it does require the workers’ comp piece, and a contractor without it is breaking PA law, not just cutting a corner.
This gap between what the state checks and what it does not is part of what makes the Pennsylvania commercial floor care market its own animal. The protection you get is largely the protection you insist on.
What It Comes Down To
In Pennsylvania, require four coverages from any cleaning or floor care contractor: general liability (at least $1 million per occurrence for occupied buildings), workers’ compensation (legally mandatory for any contractor with employees), a janitorial bond, and commercial auto. Then verify all of it with a certificate of insurance sent straight from their agent and an additional insured endorsement that names your business. Coverage you have not seen on paper is coverage you do not have.
Excellence Janitorial Services is family-owned, registered, and fully insured in the State of Pennsylvania, and we are glad to provide a certificate of insurance naming your business before we ever set foot on your floors. If you want a floor care partner whose paperwork is as clean as the floors, call us at (800) 851-0806 for a free, no-obligation quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a commercial cleaning company need insurance in Pennsylvania?
Workers’ compensation is legally required for any cleaning company in Pennsylvania that has at least one employee. General liability, a janitorial bond, and commercial auto are not state-mandated, but they are standard for any reputable commercial contractor and are routinely required by clients and landlords before work can begin.
Is workers’ compensation insurance required in PA?
Yes. Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, every employer with one or more employees, including part-time and seasonal workers, must carry workers’ compensation coverage. Employers can obtain it through a licensed carrier or the State Workers’ Insurance Fund, and those who go without it face lawsuits and possible criminal prosecution.
How much general liability insurance should a cleaning contractor carry?
For commercial floor work in an occupied building, $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate is a common and reasonable standard. Some places set their own minimum; Philadelphia, for example, requires contractors to carry at least $500,000 per occurrence. Match the limit to the risk in your facility.
What is a certificate of insurance, and why should I ask for one?
A certificate of insurance (COI) is a one-page document listing a contractor’s active policies, carriers, coverage limits, and effective dates. You ask for one to confirm the contractor actually has the coverage they claim. Have it sent directly from their insurance agent or carrier so you know it is current and genuine.
What does “additional insured” mean, and should my business be named?
Being named as an additional insured on the contractor’s general liability policy extends that coverage to protect your business if a claim arises from the contractor’s work. Yes, your business should be named. A certificate of insurance shows coverage exists; the additional insured endorsement is what actually extends it to you. Request it in writing before work starts.
Do I need my cleaning contractor to carry a janitorial bond?
It is strongly recommended. A janitorial bond reimburses you if one of the contractor’s employees steals from your facility, which matters because cleaning crews often work after hours with access to your space. The premiums are small, so any established contractor should be able to carry one.
What happens if I hire an uninsured cleaning contractor?
The risk shifts to you. If a visitor slips on a freshly waxed floor or a worker is injured on your property and the contractor has no coverage, you, as the property owner or tenant, can end up paying for the claim. Verifying insurance up front is far cheaper than absorbing a loss the contractor should have covered.