Santa Clara
Santa Clara's minimum wage is $18.70 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, for anyone who performs two or more hours of work a week in the city, and Santa Clara contracts with the City of San Jose to enforce it. No 2027 Santa Clara rate was found as of October 21, 2026. The city's business license requirement also reaches businesses located outside the city that conduct business activity within city limits.
A cleaning company doesn't have to be based in Santa Clara to answer to it. The wage turns on two hours of work a week inside the city, and the business license reaches outside companies that do business there. This page covers both, a word about the date on the city's wage page, California sales tax, and what it all means for your books. Payroll registration and the employee test are on my California hub.
The City of Santa Clara's Minimum Wage Ordinance page lists $18.70 an hour effective January 1, 2026. Covered employees include anyone who performs two or more hours of work a week in Santa Clara, and the page states no employer-size tier. The City of Santa Clara contracts with the City of San Jose to enforce the ordinance. No 2027 rate is posted on the city's page, and none was found on the city's site as of October 21, 2026.
One oddity: the page footer reads Last Updated 09-29-2023, yet the page carries the 2026 rate, so that footer date isn't a reliable way to tell whether the page is current. Whether your crews are covered is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Statewide, the floor is $16.90 an hour from January 1, 2026, with $17.40 announced by the Department of Industrial Relations on August 13, 2026 for 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)
Santa Clara says all businesses need a valid City business license to transact business or occupy space in the city, and that includes businesses located outside the city that conduct business activity within city limits. The page doesn't show a date, and what the license costs isn't covered here. Whether a particular cleaning contract counts as business activity in Santa Clara is a question for the city.
Source: City of Santa Clara, Business Tax License (no page date shown)
A company that cleans in several cities can owe more than one city a license. A single catch-all licenses account is the worst way to record that. It lumps every city into one number, and nobody can tell which city got paid. I give the Santa Clara license its own line, record wages at what each person was actually paid, and keep supplies at full cost, tax included. More on payroll for cleaning businesses.
California doesn't tax residential or commercial cleaning under its general service rule, Regulation 1501, and the cleaning company pays tax on its supplies as their consumer. That answer applies the general rule, because no California Department of Tax and Fee Administration source naming house cleaning or janitorial service was found. The rest is on my California sales tax page.
Source: California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, Regulation 1501, Service Enterprises Generally
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the license, wages, and supplies recorded; whether the wage or the license reaches your company is a question for the city or an employment attorney, and tax questions go to your CPA.
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 Santa Clara 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
Santa Clara's license reaches companies based outside the city that do business there, so each city's license gets its own line in the books instead of one lump. Wages go in at what each person was actually paid for the hours worked. Book a short call below and tell me which cities your crews cover.
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
Cleaning in Santa Clara from an office somewhere else? Tell me which cities you work in and I'll show you how the books can keep them apart. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
