Class code 9014 vs 0042: interior janitorial or exterior grounds work?
The short answer
Where the work physically happens decides it: cleaning inside a building is 9014, grounds and exterior work is 0042 — and a facility-services business doing both needs a payroll split, not a single code.
Facility-services companies increasingly sell interior cleaning and grounds maintenance as one contract, and payroll usually gets set up under whichever line of business came first. The two codes sit close enough together that switching one code for the other isn't a reliable saving.
The actual lever here is the same one that shows up across every mixed-operation business in this system: without job-level or crew-level records tying payroll to interior versus exterior work, the whole company defaults to one code for everyone.
The codes side by side
| Code | What it covers | Illustrative rate |
|---|---|---|
| 9014 | Janitorial Services — By Contractors | $3.00 – $6.50 |
| 0042 | Landscape Gardening & Drivers | $4.50 – $9.00 |
Per $100 of payroll. National illustrative ranges — your state and carrier set the actual rates.
Is this crew's work inside the building or on the grounds outside it?
Inside the building — floors, restrooms, common areas → 9014 (Janitorial Services — By Contractors)
Standard contract janitorial work, regardless of which division of the company it sits under.
Outside — mowing, planting, grading, general grounds care → 0042 (Landscape Gardening & Drivers)
Tree work at height is a different, much higher-rated code — don't assume 0042 covers it.
Both, by the same crew across the week → 0042 (Landscape Gardening & Drivers)
Only supportable as two codes with verifiable per-crew or per-job records. Without them, the payroll typically defaults to whichever of the two is the higher-rated code — commonly 0042 in this pair, though check your state's specific numbers.
When each code applies
9014 — Janitorial services — by contractors
- Interior cleaning of commercial buildings under contract
- Floor care, restroom servicing, trash and interior surface cleaning
- Work performed inside the building envelope
0042 — Landscape gardening & drivers
- Planting, mowing, grading and general grounds maintenance
- Exterior work on the property outside the building
- Drivers who transport crews and equipment between sites
What audits get wrong here
An interior cleaning crew is coded under the company's landscaping code because grounds work was the original business.
The code follows the business's history, not the current job mix, until someone actually separates the payroll.
Office and supervisory staff at a facility-services company are lumped into whichever operational code has the most payroll.
The governing classification rule assigns the largest-payroll code to everyone unless a standard exception or a genuine split applies.
A grounds crew is coded 9014 because the company's paperwork was set up around its original janitorial contracts.
An auditor who finds exterior grounds work on the janitorial code will move it to 0042 — or a higher-rated tree or grading code if the work goes beyond basic landscaping — and can back-bill.
Payroll is split between the two codes by estimate — 'about 60/40' — rather than by records.
A split without verifiable records allocating hours per class doesn't hold up. The entire payroll can be reassigned to the highest-rated applicable code on audit.
Worked example
A facility-services company whose interior cleaning crew is coded under its landscaping and grounds classification, on $80,000 of annual payroll.
- Charged at 0042 (Landscape Gardening & Drivers)
- $3,600 – $7,200 / yr
- Charged at 9014 (Janitorial Services — By Contractors)
- $2,400 – $5,200 / yr
On these illustrative ranges the outcome spans from about $1,600 a year worse to about $4,800 a year better. This is genuinely state-dependent — look up your own rates before arguing it.
Illustrative only. Not a quote, and not a prediction of what your carrier will do.
How much is actually at stake
9014 and 0042 overlap through the middle of their illustrative ranges, so moving a crew from one to the other isn't a guaranteed saving — it can go either way depending on your state's published rates. For a facility-services business doing both interior and exterior work, the real win isn't the code label, it's building job-level records so the split holds up on audit instead of defaulting to one code for the whole payroll.
What settles the argument
Classification disputes are won with records, not opinions. For this one, gather:
- Crew or job-costing records tying payroll to interior versus exterior work
- Contracts describing the scope of each job — cleaning only, grounds only, or both
- Equipment and vehicle assignment records — mowers and grounds equipment versus cleaning carts
- Time records for crews or individuals who do both kinds of work
- Org chart or job descriptions separating cleaning supervisors from grounds supervisors
Not sure which one your audit used? Check every employee against their assigned code in a couple of minutes.
Run the free checkerFrequently asked questions
- Is 0042 always cheaper than 9014, or the other way around?
- Neither, reliably. The illustrative ranges overlap, and which one is cheaper depends on your state's published rates. Check before assuming a reclassification saves money.
- Does tree trimming count as 0042?
- No — tree work at height generally falls under a separate, much higher-rated tree-service code. Ground-level landscaping and tree trimming are priced very differently.
- Can one company use both 9014 and 0042?
- Yes, when interior cleaning and grounds work are genuinely separate operations with payroll that can be verifiably allocated between them. Without that allocation, one code — usually the governing classification — applies to everyone.
- What about window cleaning or pressure washing?
- Interior window cleaning is typically part of standard janitorial work, but exterior or above-ground-level window cleaning can fall under a different, higher-rated code. Describe the actual scope rather than assuming it fits 9014 or 0042.
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ClassCheck provides self-advocacy information only. This is not legal, insurance or accounting advice, and classification rules vary by state and carrier. Terms.