SBA Proposes Raising Size Standard for Dry Cleaners

Would lift the small-business revenue cap for drycleaning and laundry services to $47 million

September 16, 2026

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently proposed raising the revenue threshold that determines whether a drycleaning or laundry business qualifies as “small” under federal law, part of a broader overhaul of size standards covering 338 industry groups.

Under the proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on August 20, the size standard for NAICS code 8123 — Drycleaning and Laundry Services — would increase from $35 million to $47 million in average annual receipts. Businesses that fall under the cap are eligible for SBA loan programs, federal contracting set-asides and other small-business preferences; raising it would let more, and larger, drycleaning and laundry operations continue to qualify.

The proposal is SBA’s third five-year review of size standards required under the Small Business Jobs Act. Beyond the individual industry thresholds, it would also:

consolidate roughly 1,000 six-digit NAICS size standards into 338 standards set at the broader 4- and 5-digit level;
convert a number of receipts-based standards to employment-based ones, which SBA says reduces year-to-year volatility;
replace the seven factors SBA has used to set standards with three: national industry size, geographic markets and import and export adjustments; and
add a productivity-growth adjustment alongside the existing inflation adjustment for receipts-based standards.

SBA estimates the overall proposal would newly classify 110,000 to 114,500 additional firms nationwide as small businesses, an increase of roughly 1.8 to 2%.

“Small businesses create the vast majority of new jobs,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler says. “This proposal ensures that these job creators have the regulatory certainty to scale.”

The comment period on the proposed rule closes on September 21. Dry cleaners who want to weigh in can submit comments through regulations.gov, referencing Federal Register document number 2026-17042. Small-business owners can check their current industry classification and size eligibility by visiting www.sba.gov/size-standards.