Santa Fe
The City of Santa Fe's living wage is $15.40 an hour, effective March 1, 2026, for all hours worked within city limits by employers required to have a city business license or registration. The city has announced a one-time increase to $17.50 on January 1, 2027, with annual adjustments starting March 1, 2028. New Mexico's state minimum wage is $12.00.
Santa Fe doesn't call its wage floor a minimum wage. It's a living wage, and coverage is tied to the city's business license. This page covers the rate and its two upcoming dates, the tipped base wage, the license that connects to coverage, gross receipts tax, and what all of it means for your books. Payroll registration is on bookkeeping for New Mexico cleaning businesses.
The city's 2026 Living Wage Ordinance poster sets $15.40 an hour, effective March 1, 2026, for all employers required to have a City of Santa Fe business license or registration, for all hours worked within the Santa Fe city limits. The Office of Economic Development's living wage page announces a one-time increase to $17.50 an hour on January 1, 2027, and annual adjustments starting March 1, 2028. That page says the ordinance passed in November 2025.
Source: City of Santa Fe, 2026 Living Wage Ordinance poster (English) (effective March 1, 2026)
Source: City of Santa Fe, Office of Economic Development, Living Wage in the City of Santa Fe
For tipped employees who earn $100 or more a month in tips, the economic development page says "Employers may pay a base wage of $3.00 per hour," as long as base pay plus tips reaches $15.40.
Source: City of Santa Fe, Office of Economic Development, Living Wage in the City of Santa Fe
This page covers the City of Santa Fe only, not Santa Fe County. 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
The City of Santa Fe directs all businesses to apply for a City of Santa Fe Business License, and businesses based outside the city submit a business registration application. That matters here because the living wage poster ties coverage to employers required to hold a city business license or registration. Whether your company is one of them is a question for the city or an employment attorney.
Source: City of Santa Fe, Planning and Land Use, Business License Team, New Business License
Residential and commercial cleaning are both subject to New Mexico's gross receipts tax, which is imposed on the business and varies by location. FYI-105 from the Taxation and Revenue Department gives a range of 4.875% to 8.9375%. More on my page about how New Mexico taxes cleaning services.
On the department's schedule for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the City of Santa Fe, location code 01-123, carries a gross receipts tax rate of 8.1875%, against a state rate of 4.875% on the same schedule.
Santa Fe puts its changes on two different months: $17.50 on January 1, 2027, then annual adjustments starting March 1, 2028. Ask me to keep that straight from memory and I'd have it wrong by spring, and keeping dates straight is supposed to be my whole job. So the books carry the calendar instead. Hours worked inside city limits get recorded on their own, payroll goes in at the wage each person is actually paid, and tips for tipped staff are recorded next to base pay so the two can be added up.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep hours, wages, tips, and gross receipts tax recorded; coverage questions go to 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 Santa Fe 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
Santa Fe's living wage applies to hours worked within city limits by employers that need a city business license or registration, so those hours show up in payroll on their own, recorded at the wage actually paid. Tips for tipped staff go in next to base pay, and gross receipts tax stays in a liability account. Book a short call below and walk me through how your Santa Fe hours are tracked.
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
Have crews working inside Santa Fe city limits? Tell me how their hours are recorded today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
