Portland, Maine
Portland's minimum wage, set by Chapter 33 of the City Code, is $16.75 an hour for hourly employees, or $8.38 for service employees, starting January 1, 2026. The ordinance schedules $17.75 for January 1, 2027 and $19.00 for January 1, 2028. Maine's state rate is $15.10 in 2026 and $15.70 from January 1, 2027, and cleaning isn't taxable under Maine sales tax.
Portland's wage has its calendar already written: set figures for 2026, 2027, and 2028, then cost-of-living increases from 2029. This page covers those rates, who Chapter 33 reaches, Maine's sales tax treatment of cleaning, and how the city wage shows up in your books. The state's payroll registration and employee test are on bookkeeping for Maine cleaning businesses.
The City of Portland's page lists the minimum wage starting January 1, 2026 as $16.75 per hour for hourly employees, or $8.38 for service employees. Whenever an emergency order is in effect, the city minimum wage is calculated at 1.5 times the regular minimum wage. Chapter 33, as amended by referendum through November 4, 2025, schedules $17.75 an hour on January 1, 2027 and $19.00 an hour on January 1, 2028, with annual cost-of-living increases from January 1, 2029.
On the employee side, the ordinance reaches any person who performs work for an employer for monetary compensation within city limits, whether full-time, part-time, seasonal, or temporary, excluding people exempt under 26 M.R.S. 663(3). On the employer side, it applies to employers with a place of business within city limits. Whether that describes your business, and which of your people it covers, is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: City of Portland, Maine, Minimum Wage
Source: City of Portland, Maine, Chapter 33 Minimum Wage (revised January 1, 2026)
Statewide, Maine's minimum wage is $15.10 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. The Maine Department of Labor announced on September 18, 2026 that it rises to $15.70 on January 1, 2027, under the annual cost-of-living adjustment in 26 M.R.S. 664.
Source: Maine Department of Labor, Minimum Wage poster (2027)
Maine defines taxable services as a closed list in 36 M.R.S. 1752(17-B), covering items such as lodging, electricity, cable and satellite, and telecommunications. Cleaning isn't on it, so residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable. The separate service provider tax in 36 M.R.S. 2552 is shown as repealed. The details are on my page on Maine sales tax and cleaning. This page doesn't cover tax on the cleaning supplies you buy; that and any job-specific question go to your CPA.
Source: Maine Legislature, 36 M.R.S. sec. 1752, Definitions (subsection 17-B, Taxable service)
Source: Maine Legislature, 36 M.R.S. sec. 2552, Service provider tax
Payroll is where Portland shows up. The Portland wage isn't just one rate you plug in once. It's $16.75 for hourly employees, it's $8.38 for service employees as the city lists them, it's 1.5 times the regular figure whenever an emergency order is in effect, and it's a scheduled change on January 1 of 2027 and again in 2028. I record payroll at the wage each person is actually paid, keep each employee's pay type on file, and the job profitability estimator shows what $17.75 does to a single job before January 1, 2027 arrives.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep wages and pay types recorded; who the Portland wage covers 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 Portland, Maine 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
Portland's wage comes with a schedule, $17.75 on January 1, 2027 and $19.00 a year later, so payroll goes into the books at the wage actually paid and each employee's pay type stays on record. With cleaning outside Maine's sales tax, the attention goes to labor cost. Book a short call below and show me how your Portland payroll runs today.
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
If your crews clean in Portland, tell me how your payroll handles the city rate today, and we'll check that the books match it. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
