Price Increases 2.0
So part one talked about all the not so fun, even boring, economical reasoning behind why your janitorial service provider may have to give price increases to their customers. Here, we are going to pull on some heart strings really quick to show you our TOP reason for price increases.
Employees
We are nothing without our people, but that goes for most businesses with employees right? I make a case that it means even more with janitorial service employees. Not here to knock on other businesses I promise, but those working in janitorial positions have it rough.
Think about it, how long do you think you can mop, vacuum or wipe surfaces for? I timed myself once and it was roughly 4 hours before I thought my arm was going to fall off. We have people that work 5 nights a week, doing exactly that but for 8 hours. Those are some tough people I tell you. We don’t blink when people who do manual labor, like construction workers, make $20+ an hour because we find that to be hard work. So I bring up the idea that janitorial is also hard work and also can get really gross really fast on top of that. Acknowledging this heard work via wages is incredibly important.
It is also very apparent that wages have not kept up with cost of living in this world. Especially here in Montana, the change in costs from 2019 is … has been dramatic to say the least. If the COL average in the United States is 100, housing in Missoula is at 157.6, as an example. Without housing, having employees isn’t even possible! That is just the tip of the iceberg – food, utilities, transportation all adds up in the end.
Paying a living wage is what we try and do, granted it has been changing so quickly it has been hard to keep up. The average wage for a janitor in the United States is roughly $14 an hour. That means a rough estimated salary (not adding in taxes, benefit costs, etc.) of $30,000 a year. That is hard to live on in today’s world.
Now, as a business you cannot just spring that large of a jump into a price increase and not give your client a massive heart attack. We watch trends and do our best to have our pricing remain stabilized for as long as possible. While we love to go over a year or more before another increase is given, we can only guarantee for a year.
Just in the past year, our wages have gone up 36%. Again, not wanting to cause massive coronaries, we do our best to balance being able to give steady raises, pay the living wage for the community we live in and keep a decent margin for both employee support benefits. Shopping happens much less when you are putting out quality work and maintain a good relationship clients. Quality work comes from employees who care and are happy with their job. Clients equal income and income equals ability to pay wages and long term clients give the stability to give raises. See how that math works, it’s just one giant circle.
We are very transparent in our pricing, if you ever have questions, reach out! We would love to have a conversation!