Santa Monica
Santa Monica's minimum wage is $18.47 an hour from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, for employees who perform at least two hours of work in a particular workweek within the city. Paid sick leave accrues at 1 hour for every 30 worked, and the city's notice lists 40 hours for employers with 25 or fewer employees and 72 hours for 26 or more. California's state rate is $16.90.
Santa Monica's wage year runs July to June, while California's state rate changes on January 1, so a cleaning company with jobs in the city works with two calendars. This page covers the city rate and its window, paid sick leave by employer size, and what it means for your books. For payroll registration and the employee test, see bookkeeping for California cleaning businesses.
The city's minimum wage page, last modified June 10, 2026, sets $18.47 an hour effective July 1, 2026, up from $17.81, and the rate runs through June 30, 2027. It covers employees, including temporary and part-time workers, who perform at least two hours of work in a particular workweek within the geographic limits of the City of Santa Monica. The city adjusts the rate every July 1, and no July 1, 2027 figure is posted on the sources read for this page. Which of your crews it reaches is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: City of Santa Monica, Minimum Wage (last modified June 10, 2026)
At the state level, the rate is $16.90 an hour, 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 FY26-27 legal notice says employees accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. It lists 40 hours of paid sick leave for employers with 25 or fewer employees and 72 hours for employers with 26 or more, framed as the hours an employer must provide.
Source: City of Santa Monica, Legal Notice FY26-27 (English)
The wage changes on July 1 here, not January 1. Wages go into the books at the rate each person was actually paid, and sick leave balances are kept by employee, so every single one of those sick hours traces back to a shift somebody worked. When the July 2027 figure is posted, it goes in from the first pay period it applies to. More on how I set up payroll for cleaning businesses.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep wages and sick leave recorded; questions about which employees the city's rules reach 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 Santa Monica 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
With a July 1 wage year and sick leave of 40 or 72 hours depending on size, Santa Monica payroll has two moving parts. Hours worked feed both the wage and the sick leave balance, so balances are kept by employee alongside wages recorded at the rate actually paid. Book a short call below and show me how your Santa Monica hours get tracked.
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
Running crews in Santa Monica and want your sick leave balances checked against the hours behind them? Tell me what you use to track them today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
