- The middle half earn between $19.79 and $27.64 an hour.
- Iowa ranks 19th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Iowa pays more than 2 of its 6 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 270 crime scene cleaners on payrolls in Iowa.
- At the state median wage, a biohazard cleaning business needs to bill about $112.70 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Crime Scene Cleaner pay in Iowa, bottom to top
BLS has no figure for crime scene cleaners. These are its numbers for hazardous materials removal workers, the closest group, which includes decontamination workers along with asbestos and lead abatement crews. Treat them as a rough guide, not a measure of crime scene work itself.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $18.51 | $38,490 | $18.49 |
| 25th percentile | $19.79 | $41,160 | $21.50 |
| Median | $23.98 | $49,870 | $23.78 |
| 75th percentile | $27.64 | $57,490 | $29.58 |
| 90th percentile | $29.40 | $61,150 | $39.62 |
| Average (mean) | $24.34 | $50,630 | $27.13 |
Pay is bunched up in Iowa. The top tenth earn $29.40 an hour or more, about 1.6 times the $18.51 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 2.1 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
The floor is higher than nationally ($18.51 against $18.49) but the ceiling is lower ($29.40 against $39.62), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average, $24.34, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How Iowa compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $49,870 in Iowa against $49,450 nationally, $420 more.
In the state ranking, Iowa sits 19th, between Arizona ($24.29) and Idaho ($23.90). The range runs from $17.61 in Arkansas to $35.14 in New York.
Against its neighboring states, Iowa is in the middle: Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota pay more, and Nebraska and Wisconsin pay less.
How many crime scene cleaners work in Iowa
About 270 crime scene cleaners work on payrolls in Iowa, 0.5% of the 51,710 nationwide, the 38th largest count among the states.
It is a smaller part of local jobs than in most of the country, at 0.2 per 1,000 jobs, 0.52 times the national share.
What a biohazard cleaning business in Iowa should charge
Say you run a biohazard cleaning business in Iowa and pay the state median of $23.98 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on its starting numbers: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $23.98 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $53,694 |
| Break-even rate | ($53,694 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $95.80 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $95.80 ÷ 0.85 | $112.70 |
That is $112.70 per billable hour, 4.7 times the wage, and almost the same as the $112.35 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $27.64 in Iowa, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $119.13.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $19.79, the rate only drops to $105.34.
At this wage, overhead is most of the price: $60 of every billed hour goes to it before anyone is paid. Spreading the same overhead over more billable hours, with a second person or less drive time, brings the rate down fastest.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 47-4041, hazardous materials removal workers, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: crime scene cleaner salary by state.