San Jose
San Jose's minimum wage is $18.45 an hour for 2026, and the city has already posted the next step: $19.00 an hour starting January 1, 2027. The ordinance sets the rate employers must pay for work performed within the city. California's statewide rate is $16.90, going to $17.40 on January 1, 2027, so the San Jose floor sits above the state's in both years.
Both the 2026 and the 2027 San Jose rates are posted, which gives a cleaning company with jobs in the city a known number to plan January around. This page covers the city wage and who enforces it, the city's Business Tax Certificate, California sales tax on cleaning, and what all of it means for your books. Payroll registration and the employee test are on bookkeeping for California cleaning businesses.
The rate is $18.45 an hour for 2026 and $19.00 an hour from January 1, 2027. It comes from the city's Minimum Wage Ordinance, approved by San Jose voters on November 12, 2012, which sets the rate employers must pay for work performed within the city. The City of San Jose Office of Equality Assurance enforces it. Which of your crews and jobs the ordinance reaches is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: City of San Jose, Public Works Labor Compliance, Minimum Wage Ordinance
Statewide, California's minimum wage is $16.90 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, and the Department of Industrial Relations announced on August 13, 2026 that it rises to $17.40 on January 1, 2027.
Source: California Department of Industrial Relations, Labor Commissioner, Minimum Wage FAQ
Source: California Department of Industrial Relations, News Release 2026-66 (August 13, 2026)
The city's Finance Department says every person or company conducting business in San Jose must register for a Business Tax Certificate. Whether your company's work in the city counts, and what the certificate costs, are questions for the city or your CPA.
Source: City of San Jose, Finance Department, Business Tax & Registration
Residential and commercial cleaning aren't taxable under California's general service-enterprise rule, Regulation 1501. That answer comes from the general rule, because no California Department of Tax and Fee Administration source naming house cleaning or janitorial service was found. The same rule treats the cleaning company as the consumer of the supplies it buys, so tax is owed on those supplies. The conditions are on my California sales tax page.
Source: California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, Regulation 1501, Service Enterprises Generally
A rate change with a date already attached is the easier kind to handle. The part that matters is the first 2027 payroll actually using $19.00 for hours worked in San Jose. Spreadsheet wage tables are the worst. They don't update themselves on January 1, and payroll keeps paying last year's number until somebody catches it. I record wages at the rate each person is actually paid, put the Business Tax Certificate on its own expense line, and book supplies at their full cost, tax included. More on how I set up payroll for cleaning businesses.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep wages, supplies, and the business tax recorded; tax questions go to your CPA, and coverage questions go to the city or an employment attorney.
Rules checked against the sources above as of October 20, 2026. Rates and rules change; confirm current figures with the agency or your CPA.
About Figure Eight Financial
Figure Eight Financial is Dave Gordon’s bookkeeping practice for residential and commercial cleaning companies. I work with owners in San Jose and across the country, and I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Before bookkeeping I studied computer science at Penn State and spent a career at IBM as an engineer, so I build the books as a system: data comes in once, lands in the right place, and ties back to a statement. I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA or Enrolled Agent. I keep the books your CPA works from, and the tax decisions stay with your CPA.
Credentials and memberships reported by Figure Eight Financial.
More about DaveHow I Help
San Jose has already set its 2027 rate, so the move from $18.45 to $19.00 is on the calendar now. Wages go in at what each person is actually paid for work in the city, and the Business Tax Certificate gets its own expense line. Book a short call below and tell me which San Jose jobs you want to look at first.
The core service. Transactions recorded and categorized, every account reconciled so the books and the bank agree, and monthly reports that arrive explained, split by residential and commercial and sliceable per contract.
The full picture of how this works for a cleaning companyFor the months where nothing got entered at all. I fill in the missing periods from the ground up, pulling bank feeds, statements, and receipts until every month has a complete set of records.
How catch-up bookkeeping worksFor books that exist but can’t be trusted. I audit what’s there, fix the unreconciled accounts, duplicate transactions, and wrong categories, and tie every balance back to a statement.
How cleanup bookkeeping worksYour crews paid on time, every pay period, with each payroll run recorded in the books so labor shows up against the jobs it belongs to.
How payroll worksRecurring invoices that match your contracts, an aging report you can trust, and follow-up on slow payers handled by a process instead of your evenings. Built for net-60 commercial accounts.
How invoicing and receivables workA file built right for a cleaning company from day one, or rebuilt after the DIY version drifts, and then I teach you to run it. I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and this is honestly my favorite part of the job.
How a proper setup worksWe start with a short call about your business and where the books stand. The first conversation doesn’t cost anything.
I take a look at what you’ve got, your QuickBooks file, your spreadsheet, whatever exists.
You get a written proposal with the price, so the decision is yours with the number in hand.
Let's Connect
Want to see your San Jose contracts next to the $19.00 rate before January? Send me the list and I'll show you what the books say. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
