Albuquerque
Albuquerque's minimum wage is $12.00 an hour in 2026, and the city's 2027 notice raises it to $13.00 on January 1, 2027. Where an employer pays healthcare or childcare benefits with an annualized cost of at least $2,500, the 2027 rate stays $12.00, and the tipped rate stays $7.20. New Mexico's state rate is $12.00 as well, the same as the city's 2026 figure.
For 2026, Albuquerque's minimum wage and New Mexico's land on the same number. The city's posted change on January 1, 2027 is what's new. This page covers the Albuquerque rates, including the benefits and tipped rates, the city business license, gross receipts tax on cleaning, and what the 2027 rate means for your books. Payroll registration is on bookkeeping for New Mexico cleaning businesses.
The City of Albuquerque's rate table lists a $12.00 minimum wage as of January 1, 2026, with $12.00 for employers providing health care or childcare benefits and $7.20 for tipped employees. The city's 2027 notice raises the minimum wage to $13.00 an hour on January 1, 2027. The benefits rate stays $12.00 where the employer pays healthcare and/or childcare benefits with an annualized cost of at least $2,500, and the tipped rate stays $7.20. The notice says rates are posted by October 15 each year.
Source: City of Albuquerque, Legal Department, Albuquerque Minimum Wage Information
Source: City of Albuquerque, Notice Regarding 2027 Minimum Wage Rate in the City of Albuquerque
This page doesn't cover who the city wage reaches or which hours count, and which rate applies to your employees is a question for the city or an employment attorney. Statewide, New Mexico's minimum wage is $12.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2023, under Senate Bill 437 from the 2019 session.
Source: New Mexico Legislature, Senate Bill 437 (2019), Conference Committee Report 2
Albuquerque's Business License Ordinance requires all businesses to apply for and pay a business license fee for each place of business within city limits before engaging in business. The city replaced business registration with business licenses starting July 1, 2025.
Source: City of Albuquerque, Department of Finance and Administration, Business Licenses
New Mexico taxes residential and commercial cleaning through its gross receipts tax, which is imposed on the business, and the rate depends on location. The Taxation and Revenue Department's FYI-105 gives a range of 4.875% to 8.9375%. The details, including the resale deduction that matters for subcontracted cleaning, are on my page on how New Mexico taxes cleaning services.
The department's rate schedule for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 lists Albuquerque, location code 02-100, at a 7.625% gross receipts tax rate. The state rate on the same schedule is 4.875%.
Going from $12.00 to $13.00 on January 1 can feel like a lot when your contracts were priced at the old floor. Don't worry about it. One date. One number. We'll have it in your job costs before then. If you provide healthcare or childcare benefits, the books also track their annualized cost, since the city's benefits rate turns on the $2,500 figure. I record payroll at the wage each person is actually paid, and gross receipts tax sits in its own liability account rather than in revenue.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep wages, benefit costs, and gross receipts tax recorded; which rate applies to your employees 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 Albuquerque 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
Once Albuquerque's rate moves to $13.00 on January 1, 2027, payroll still gets recorded at the wage actually paid, and any healthcare or childcare benefits are tracked at their annualized cost, since the city's benefits rate turns on that figure. Gross receipts tax stays in a liability account, apart from revenue. Book a short call below and we'll walk through your Albuquerque payroll.
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
Want your Albuquerque job costs ready for $13.00 before January? Tell me how payroll runs today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
