Broadway just wrapped a record season, but the people scrubbing its aisles and bathrooms say the celebration has not reached their paychecks. As 32BJ SEIU opens contract talks with The Broadway League this month, theater cleaners are pushing for higher wages and stronger protections on the basics: health care and retirement.
A new contract bargaining round kicked off last week between The Broadway League and 32BJ SEIU, with the union’s committee putting forward a proposal that seeks wage increases, protection of medical benefits without premium sharing, and more robust pension contributions. “The wages, they could be so much better. That’s how I want to put it,” bargaining committee member Kirth Crawford told the New York Amsterdam News. The League was expected to respond with a counterproposal this week, although it has not made its terms public.
A billion-dollar season
The industry pulled in roughly $1.91 billion in ticket sales during the 2025–26 season and drew about 14.6 million attendees, according to figures compiled by The Broadway League. That rebound has producers and theater owners cheering a return to pre-pandemic grosses, even as workers argue that the comeback has not translated into equally strong gains for the people working offstage.
What the last deal bought
Back in 2022, about 230 Broadway cleaners, custodians, elevator operators and restroom attendants secured a multi-year contract that delivered a $3.75-per-hour raise phased in over four years, higher employer pension contributions and continued, fully employer-paid family health coverage, according to Gothamist. Union leaders now say that win was meaningful but has since been undercut by rising rents and shifting work schedules that have tightened family budgets.
On the ground: split shifts and extra duties
Workers describe physically demanding, tightly timed shifts. Larger houses may have 10 or 11 people on a morning crew, while a show shift might lean on just two porters to handle the crowds. Some staffers who once worked split morning and evening runs now do straight eight-hour days. For kid-focused matinees like The Lion King, which can bring about 1,800 children into the theater, crews can spend an hour clearing seats, sweeping floors and vacuuming, union members say. At certain Times Square venues, staff are also tasked with cleaning sidewalks, washing away urine and asking unhoused people to move along, conditions the union argues should count at the bargaining table, as reported by the New York Amsterdam News.
What’s at stake
32BJ SEIU represents the building-service workers who keep Broadway’s theaters running day to day, and its bargaining committee says members want raises that at least keep pace with New York City’s cost of living. The union argues that preserving medical coverage without premium sharing and securing bigger pension contributions would help shield longtime workers from financial precarity. Updates for members are posted at 32BJ SEIU. If negotiations bog down, organizers and members could again turn to public pressure and pickets, tools they have leaned on in previous theater labor fights.
For now, both sides are back at the table with a record box-office year as the backdrop. Whether Broadway’s backstage crews see a larger share of that billion-dollar success will depend on how negotiators weigh profit margins against the price of keeping the theaters clean and the shows ready for curtain time.
