Laundromat owner salary: how much laundromat owners make

How much does a laundromat owner make?

CLA, The Laundry Association, the industry's national trade association, says a coin laundry can generate cash flow between $15,000 and $300,000 a year. For an owner-operator, that cash flow is most of their income. CLA notes that owner salary is excluded from the standard laundromat profit and loss statement, so the cash flow figure is before the owner pays themselves.

If you work the counter or handle wash-dry-fold orders yourself, part of that cash flow is really a wage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2025 median of $34,890 for laundry and dry-cleaning workers, a useful yardstick for what that labor is worth.

How much does a laundromat make in revenue?

CLA counts about 29,500 coin laundries in the United States generating nearly $5 billion in gross revenue a year. That averages out to roughly $170,000 a store, though large stores in dense rental neighborhoods do far more. CLA says the industry is mostly individual owner-operators.

What decides where a store lands in the range?

CLA's overview points to a handful of numbers that separate a $15,000 store from a $300,000 one:

• Turns per day: washers typically run three to eight or more cycles a day, depending on density, renters nearby, prices and competition.
• Dryer income, usually 40% to 60% of washer income.
• Rent and lease terms; CLA notes stores occupy retail space on long leases.
• Utilities: gas, water, electricity and sewer.
• Extra services such as wash-dry-fold and vending, which add revenue but also labor.

How do laundromat owners pay themselves?

Laundromats carry no inventory or receivables, according to CLA, so cash flow is easy to see. CLA also says stores usually sell for three to five times net cash flow, which means money left in the business to replace machines protects the value of what you own. How you take money out depends on structure:

• Sole proprietor or single-member LLC: there is no salary. The profit is your income, you take draws when cash allows, and you pay self-employment tax on it. The IRS puts that rate at 15.3%.
• Partnership or multi-member LLC: the IRS says partners are not employees and should not get a W-2. You are paid through fixed partner payments set in the partnership agreement plus your share of profit.
• S corporation: if you work in the business you must take reasonable compensation as W-2 wages before taking distributions. What comparable businesses pay for similar work is one of the factors the IRS lists.

A new revenue line for attended stores

Amelia Robotics pays businesses for approved first-person recordings of everyday work, used to train AI and robots, and lists commercial cleaning among its priorities; its cleaning examples include industrial laundry. Amelia's typical pay is $500 to $2,000 a month per recording employee, assuming 12.5 to 50 approved hours a week; earnings vary, and your agreement and the approved recordings decide what is actually paid.

Laundromats are not named on Amelia's list, and an unattended store has no crew to record, so this fits stores with wash-dry-fold staff. Ask on the setup call whether folding and processing orders qualify. Illustrative example if they do: 2 attendants x 12.5 approved hours a week x 4 weeks x $10 = $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year, at the typical rate. Amelia pays the business once a month with a statement, and you decide how much to share with the people who record.

Against a cash flow range that starts at $15,000, $12,000 a year is meaningful. Results vary and depend on approval. See how this works for cleaning and laundry crews and laundromat profit margins.

Next step

Estimate your store's figure on the Physical AI hub.