Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale's minimum wage is $19.50 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, and covered employers owe it to each employee who performs two or more hours of work a week in the city. The city's pages state no employer-size tier, and as of October 21, 2026 they show no rate for 2027. California's statewide rate is $16.90, rising to $17.40 on January 1, 2027.
Sunnyvale went from $19.00 to $19.50 an hour on January 1, 2026, and the city requires a business license of all businesses, home-based ones included, before they open or operate. Below are the wage and its two-hour test, the license, a short note on sales tax, and what all of it means for your books. Payroll registration and the employee test are on my California page.
The City of Sunnyvale lists $19.50 an hour effective January 1, 2026, up from $19.00 on January 1, 2025. Its minimum wage basics document, dated October 27, 2025, sets the threshold: covered employers pay the rate to each employee who performs two or more hours of work a week in Sunnyvale. The city states no employer-size tier, and its minimum wage page shows no last-updated date. No January 1, 2027 Sunnyvale rate was found on the city's pages as of October 21, 2026. Whether your crews are covered is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: City of Sunnyvale, Minimum Wage in Sunnyvale (no page date shown)
California's own rate is $16.90 an hour from January 1, 2026, and the Department of Industrial Relations announced on August 13, 2026 that it goes 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)
Sunnyvale requires a City business license, which it calls a Business License Tax Certificate, for all businesses, including home-based businesses, and the city says you must have it before you open or operate. The page doesn't address a company based outside Sunnyvale whose crews come in to clean, so if that describes you, the city is the place to ask. What the license costs isn't covered here.
Source: City of Sunnyvale, Obtain Licenses and Permits (no page date shown)
January 1 is the date to watch. A payroll setup only knows the rate somebody typed into it, and I don't like automation that runs without visibility. That's why the first paycheck after a Sunnyvale rate change gets compared against the city's posted figure before I trust the rest of the year. Wages are recorded at what each person was actually paid, and the Business License Tax Certificate gets an expense line of its own. Here's more on payroll for cleaning businesses.
On sales tax, residential and commercial cleaning aren't taxable in California under Regulation 1501, the general rule for service businesses, and the cleaning company owes tax on the supplies it buys as their consumer. That's the general rule applied to cleaning, since no California Department of Tax and Fee Administration source naming house cleaning or janitorial service was found. Supplies go on the books at full cost, tax included, and the conditions are 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 wages, the license, 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 Sunnyvale 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
Sunnyvale's rate changed on January 1, and no 2027 figure was found on the city's pages, so payroll gets checked against the city's number each time it moves. Wages are recorded at what each person was actually paid, and the city license sits on its own expense line. Book a short call below and tell me how your Sunnyvale payroll is set up.
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 a Sunnyvale cleaning company from home and not sure the license and the $19.50 rate both show up in your books? Send me what you have. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
