Cleaning business and janitorial insurance clients ask for.

California's janitorial employer registry and what it asks of your insurance

California registers commercial janitorial employers under Labor Code 1420 to 1434: anyone who employs, or engages by contract, subcontract or franchise, at least one covered worker, meaning someone working predominantly as a janitor. A business that only cleans residential dwellings is excluded.

The Labor Code 1429 application is mostly an insurance and tax check: tax numbers, filings, officers and 10 percent owners, and, if you employ anyone, the policy number, dates and carrier of your workers' comp. The fee is $500, nonrefundable, for one year, with a $500 renewal. Labor Code 1430 bars registration or renewal while a final judgment for failing to secure workers' comp is unpaid. Since January 1, 2020, every application and renewal has also attested to in-person sexual violence and harassment prevention training: two hours at least every two years, new workers within six months.

Labor Code 1432 penalties: $100 for each unregistered day, up to $10,000; $2,000 to $10,000 for a client that contracts with an unregistered janitorial employer, $10,000 to $25,000 after the first violation; $10,000 per material misrepresentation. Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries asks a janitorial contractor for a bond or deposit only when it cannot certify general liability of one million or more, or broke wage or civil rights laws in the prior two years. See insurance by state.

Bond or crime policy: which one pays when something is missing

A client says a watch is missing. Two instruments answer differently.

• Janitorial bond. California writes it in the surety class, which Insurance Code 105 defines to include "the guaranteeing of behavior of persons." The surety guarantees your obligation to your client, and if it pays, Civil Code 2847 binds you, the principal, to reimburse what it disbursed, including costs.
• Commercial crime with clients' property coverage. ISO's clients' property endorsement, CR 04 01, covers a client's money, securities and other property stolen by an identified employee, whether or not the client is legally liable; ISO's 2022 crime forms fold that into the fidelity insuring agreement. It is insurance, so no Civil Code 2847 reimbursement runs back to you.

Is a bond required? Not by the state registry, whose Labor Code 1429 application lists workers' comp and no bond, and not by the Health Plan of San Joaquin exhibit above. Private contracts sometimes name an amount. Your own cash stolen by staff is employee dishonesty coverage, a separate item with its own limit. More at bonded and insured, explained.

Solo house cleaners: a business, or someone's household employee?

The IRS draws the line in Topic 756: housekeepers and maids are the homeowner's household employees when the homeowner controls not only what is done but how; business people who provide their services as independent contractors are not. For 2026 the homeowner owes Social Security and Medicare tax once cash wages to one worker reach $3,000, and federal unemployment tax once household cash wages pass $1,000 in a calendar quarter.

Insurance Code 11590 has required every comprehensive personal liability policy issued or renewed since January 1, 1977 to cover workers' comp for residential employees under Labor Code 3351(d), but Labor Code 3352(a)(8) excludes anyone employed for less than 52 hours, or for wages of not more than $100, in the 90 days before an injury, so a once-a-week cleaner can land on either side. That coverage runs between the homeowner and their household employee; it does not insure your business.

Your own supplies, client list, business name and liability certificate show an independently established business, prong C of the ABC test. Carry general liability with the property damage extension above, add a bond when a contract names one, and plan on workers' comp the day you hire; Labor Code 3700 starts at one employee. More in the house cleaning business guide.