Guides
Workers' compensation premiums compared for cleaning contractors in Ontario and British Columbia
WSIB rate groups and WorkSafeBC classification units price cleaning contractor payroll differently, and that gap shows up in every cross-province bid.
What to take away
- Ontario rates cleaning payroll through WSIB rate groups. BC uses WorkSafeBC classification units, each with a published base rate.
- Both provinces apply experience rating, so your claims record moves you above or below the base rate.
- BC adds a province-wide base rate adjustment on top. Ontario builds system funding into rate setting.
- Premiums are charged per $100 of payroll. A $0.50 gap on a $1.2 million payroll is $6,000 a year.
- A WSIB clearance certificate or a WorkSafeBC clearance letter proves your account is paid up, and clients ask at tender.
How the two provinces classify cleaning work
WSIB places every Ontario employer in a rate group by business activity. Cleaning contractors sit in the building services groups, and the group sets a base rate per $100 of insurable earnings.
WorkSafeBC uses classification units instead. Each unit carries its own base rate. Janitorial and building services have separate units, so a nightly office cleaner and a post-construction cleaner can be rated apart inside one firm.
Ontario's groups are broad, so two cleaning trades can share a rate. BC's units are finer, so they often do not. Misclassification is a common audit finding on both sides.
Ontario vs BC Classification
Ontario (WSIB)
- Sorting system
- Rate groups
- Granularity
- Broad
- Window vs office
- May share rate
- Basis
- Type of business
- Misclassification
- Reclassify at audit
British Columbia (WorkSafeBC)
- Sorting system
- Classification units
- Granularity
- Finer
- Window vs office
- May differ
- Basis
- Type of work
- Misclassification
- Reclassify at audit
WSIB's authority to classify employers, set rates and apply experience rating comes from the Ontario workplace safety and insurance statute.
What moves a cleaning contractor's rate
In Ontario the rate group sets the base. Experience rating then adjusts it, comparing your claims costs with what WSIB expects for a business of your size in that group.
Benchmarks for the wages behind that payroll sit in commercial cleaning pay, because pay levels and the premium base rise together.
BC adds a third factor: a province-wide base rate adjustment tied to the funding position of the system.
Ontario (WSIB)
- Rating unit
- Rate group for building services
- Charged on
- Per $100 of insurable earnings
- Claims history
- Experience rating adjustment
- System funding
- Reflected in rate setting
- Clearance document
- Clearance certificate
British Columbia (WorkSafeBC)
- Rating unit
- Classification unit for janitorial work
- Charged on
- Per $100 of assessable payroll
- Claims history
- Experience rating discount or surcharge
- System funding
- Province-wide base rate adjustment
- Clearance document
- Clearance letter
Return to work is the lever you control. Getting an injured cleaner onto modified duties quickly shrinks the wage-loss part of a claim, and that part feeds your rate.
Ontario employers also carry duties under the province's health and safety legislation, separate from WSIB, set out in the Ontario health and safety act.
When a claim becomes an inspection, documentation is the defence. Training records, hazard assessments and incident reports show the operation was run properly, and the standard sits in CCOHS guidance on due diligence.
Example: one payroll through two provinces
Take a 30-cleaner operation with $1.2 million in insurable payroll. Rates are charged per $100 of payroll, so the premium is payroll divided by 100, multiplied by the rate.
This arithmetic is the unit economics of a contract, worked through in commercial cleaning unit economics.
For the 2025 rate year, WSIB Rate Group 704 (Building services) published base rate is $1.56 per $100 of insurable earnings. WorkSafeBC CU 761011 (Janitorial services) published base rate is $1.31 per $100 of assessable payroll.
On a $1.2 million payroll, 12,000 units times $1.56 is $18,720 in Ontario. The same payroll times $1.31 is $15,720 in BC. The BC base-rate figure is $3,000 lower before experience rating.
The two rates below are placeholders, not published figures for any year. Replace them with the current rate for your WSIB rate group or your WorkSafeBC classification unit for the rate year you are bidding.
One payroll through two provinces
- $2.00per $100on $1.2 million: 12,000 units x $2.00 = $24,000.
- $2.50per $10012,000 units x $2.50 = $30,000.
Premium Cost on Payroll
- $1,200,000 | Illustrative payroll, 30 workers
- $24,000 | Premium at $2.00 per $100
- $30,000 | Premium at $2.50 per $100
- $6,000 | Gap between the two rates
Then the site-level view. A site needing 200 hours a month at $20 an hour runs $4,000 in wages, and 15 per cent statutory costs add $600.
A premium of $2.50 per $100 on $4,600 is about $115. Supplies and supervision add $500, so total cost is $5,215. At a 20 per cent margin the quote is about $6,519 a month.
Putting the premium into a bid price
A rate left out of the bid comes out of margin. Cost-led pricing beats copying a competitor's number, and the full build is set out in this commercial cleaning pricing guide.
Build the premium in before you quote, in this order.
- Estimate hours per site per month, then multiply by the wage you will pay.
- Add statutory costsvacation pay, payroll taxes and any provincial levies.
- Apply the workers' compensation rate you expect to be assessed, per $100 of payroll.
- Add non-labour costs such as supplies, equipment, supervision and travel.
- Apply your margin to the whole cost, not to the labour line alone.
Premiums are not the only payroll-linked cost. Taxable benefits count toward insurable earnings in Ontario, and payroll filing for a Canadian cleaning company brings its own duties.
Clearance documents and two-province registration
Coverage is not optional. Employ workers in Ontario and you register with WSIB. Employ workers in BC and you register with WorkSafeBC.
A WSIB clearance certificate in Ontario, or a WorkSafeBC clearance letter in BC, confirms your account is paid up. Property managers often require one at tender, and a lapsed account can cost you the contract. Subcontracting does not remove the exposure, because an uncovered injury can flow back through your account.
New operators underestimate the paperwork, and this compliance checklist for new owners covers registration, coverage and records before the first invoice.
