Saint Paul
Saint Paul sets its minimum wage by business size. As of July 1, 2026, the rate is $16.37 an hour for macro, large, and small businesses and $14.25 for micro businesses with 5 or fewer employees, and the micro rate rises to $15.00 on July 1, 2027.
In Saint Paul, the first question isn't the rate. It's which tier your business falls into, and that depends on a headcount you may never have worked out. This page covers the tiers, how size is counted, what's known about 2027, Minnesota sales tax on cleaning, and what it means for your books. Payroll registration and the statewide picture are on bookkeeping for Minnesota cleaning businesses.
For 2027, the rates for the macro, large, and small tiers are set by a City Rate calculation, a percentage increase calculated by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. This page doesn't list those 2027 dollar amounts, so check the City of Saint Paul minimum wage page for them. The ordinance requires rates to be announced September 1 each year, taking effect January 1 of the following year.
Source: City of Saint Paul, Minimum Wage (page last edited August 31, 2026)
Business size is generally based on the average number of employees per week during the previous calendar year. Owners and board members aren't counted. Full-time, part-time, joint, and temporary employees are, including those located outside Saint Paul. Before I trust a labor rate in the books, I try to break the headcount behind it, so I'd pull last year's payroll and count every part-timer and temp, including the ones who never set foot in Saint Paul, before anyone settles on a tier. Confirming which tier and which jobs the ordinance covers is a question for an employment attorney.
Source: City of Saint Paul, Minimum Wage (page last edited August 31, 2026)
By contrast, Minneapolis uses one rate regardless of employer size. Minnesota's statewide rate is $11.41 in 2026 and $11.87 on January 1, 2027.
Under Minnesota rules, commercial cleaning is taxable and residential cleaning depends on the task. The lists of taxable and nontaxable services are on the Minnesota sales tax on cleaning page. Local sales taxes aren't covered here, and how the rules apply to your jobs is for your CPA.
Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue, Building Cleaning and Maintenance industry guide (June 29, 2026)
If you're a micro business, the rate change lands on July 1 instead of January 1, so the 2027 minimum is $14.25 for the first half of the year and $15.00 for the second. Your labor costs should show that split, job by job, or your mid-year margins will look better on paper than they are. Recording each payroll run against the right jobs is what payroll for cleaning businesses is built around.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the labor numbers accurate; tax and filing 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 Saint Paul 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
In Saint Paul the wage you owe depends on your size tier, and that tier comes from last year's average weekly headcount, part-timers and temps included. I keep the payroll records that count rests on, and for a micro business I split labor costs at the July rate change so your mid-year margins don't look better on paper than they are. Bring last year's payroll summary to a short call, booked below, and we'll go through the count 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
Not sure which Saint Paul tier your headcount puts you in? Send me last year's payroll summary and we'll go through the count together. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
