Portland
Portland's minimum wage is the Portland metro rate set by the State of Oregon: $16.80 an hour from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. It applies to work locations inside the Portland-area urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties.
In Portland the wage question is really a map question, since the rate follows work locations inside the urban growth boundary. This page covers the Portland metro rate, how the state defines the area, the July 2027 adjustment, Oregon's lack of a general sales tax, and what it all means for your books. Payroll registration and the contractor definition are on bookkeeping for Oregon cleaning businesses.
Portland's minimum wage is the Portland metro rate, and the State of Oregon sets it. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries lists it at $16.80 an hour, in effect from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The other two state tiers are $15.55 standard and $14.55 nonurban.
Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Oregon Minimum Wage
BOLI defines the Portland metro minimum wage area as within the urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. The rate covers work locations inside that boundary. Because only parts of those counties are inside it, the county name on an address doesn't settle the question by itself.
Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Oregon Minimum Wage
BOLI says increases are inflation-based and take effect July 1 each year. On July 1, 2027, the Portland metro rate will be the standard rate plus $1.25. The dollar amount hadn't been announced as of October 20, 2026.
Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Oregon Minimum Wage
Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Minimum wage increase schedule
Oregon has no general sales or use tax, so residential and commercial cleaning in Portland aren't taxable under one. This page doesn't cover the Corporate Activity Tax, a gross receipts tax on larger businesses, which wasn't checked. More on my Oregon sales tax page.
Source: Oregon Department of Revenue, Sales Tax in Oregon
When some jobs sit inside the boundary and some outside, the labor cost on two similar jobs can differ. I want every single labor line tied back to a job and its address, so you can see which work carried the Portland metro rate and what it cost you. Payroll is recorded at what each person is actually paid, and the job profitability estimator shows what $16.80 does to a single job.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep labor recorded by job; which rate applies to a given work site is a question for BOLI or an employment attorney, and the Corporate Activity Tax question goes 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 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 rate follows the urban growth boundary, so the location of each job matters in the books. Labor is recorded by job and address at the wage your crews are actually paid, which shows what the $16.80 metro rate does to each contract. Book a short call below and walk me through where your crews work.
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 on both sides of the urban growth boundary? Tell me how you track job locations today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
