Denver
Denver's minimum wage is $19.29 an hour from January 1 through December 31, 2026, and it covers work performed within the City and County of Denver, excluding work under 4 hours in Denver in a week and employees only passing through. Colorado's current state rate is $15.16, so Denver jobs need their own labor rate in your books. As of October 20, 2026, the city's page doesn't state a 2027 figure.
Inside Denver, the wage floor for your crews isn't the state number. The city sets its own minimum wage and applies it to work done within its boundaries. This page covers the Denver rate, who it covers, how Colorado sales tax treats cleaning, and what the city wage means for your books. Payroll registration and the rest of the state picture are on bookkeeping for Colorado cleaning businesses.
For 2026 the Denver minimum wage is $19.29 an hour, in effect from January 1 through December 31, 2026, according to the Denver Auditor's Office, Denver Labor. As of October 20, 2026, the city's page doesn't state a 2027 figure; it says the rate rises each year by the prior year's regional CPI increase.
Source: Denver Auditor's Office, Denver Labor, Denver's Minimum Wage in 2026
For comparison, Colorado's current statewide rate is $15.16, and on August 13, 2026 CDLE announced $15.71 for 2027.
Source: Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Labor Standards and Statistics
The city's page says the minimum wage covers all workers performing work within the geographic boundaries of the City and County of Denver after January 1, 2020. It excludes work under 4 hours within Denver in a week, and employees who are only passing through. Which of your crews and jobs fall under it is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: Denver Auditor's Office, Denver Labor, Denver's Minimum Wage in 2026
At the state level, residential and commercial cleaning appear not to be taxable, an inference from a 2012 non-binding Department of Revenue letter saying Colorado generally doesn't tax services. Home-rule city taxes weren't checked, so this page doesn't cover any city tax in Denver. The detail is on the Colorado sales tax on cleaning page, and how the rules apply to your jobs is a question for your CPA.
Work inside and outside the city means two wage floors in one set of books. I'll be honest, my own memory is the last thing I'd trust to keep $19.29 and $15.16 straight across a week of jobs, so the books carry it instead. Labor on Denver jobs gets recorded at the wage you actually pay there, and Denver hours each week get logged too, since the city's exclusion is written in hours. Then the job profitability estimator shows which Denver contracts hold up at $19.29.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the labor numbers accurate and 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 Denver 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
Denver work carries its own $19.29 rate in 2026, so labor on those jobs is recorded at the wage actually paid there, not at the state number. Hours worked inside the city each week get logged as well, since the city's exclusion is written in hours. Book a short call below and we'll look at your Denver jobs together.
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
Tell me how your Denver jobs are recorded today, and whether your payroll uses one rate for everything. We'll look at it together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
