Everett
Everett has its own minimum wage with two employer tiers. For 2026 it's $20.77 an hour for large employers and, since July 1, $19.77 for covered employers; on January 1, 2027 those become $21.52 and $20.52, with covered employers reaching $21.52 on July 1, 2027. Per the city's FAQ, an employer below 15 employees with $2 million or less in Everett revenue falls outside both tiers. The city's own documents disagree on the tier at exactly 15 and exactly 500 employees, and Washington's state rate is $17.13.
Everett's wage depends on employer size and revenue, and one of its two tiers changes twice a year. This page covers the two tiers and where the city's documents disagree, the Everett sales tax rates through the end of 2026, the city business license, and what it all means for your books. The state employee test and payroll registration are on my Washington page.
Everett's minimum wage comes from Initiative 24-01, Everett Municipal Code 5.08, effective July 1, 2025. It covers hours worked within city boundaries, tips and service charges are paid in addition to the wage, and the city ties a certification to the annual business license renewal. The city posts these rates:
Source: City of Everett, Minimum Wage (Labor Standards) (no page date shown)
Statewide, the Department of Labor & Industries sets Washington's minimum at $17.13 an hour for 2026 and has announced $17.73 starting January 1, 2027.
Source: Washington Department of Labor & Industries, 2026 Minimum Wage Announcement
The city's rate table puts large employers at 500 or more employees, counting franchises under common control, and covered employers at 15 to 499. The city's FAQ defines covered employers as those employing at least fifteen and large employers as those employing more than 500. A September 29, 2026 city Finance memo describes covered employers as having fewer than 500 but more than 15 employees. Covered employers also include those with annual gross revenue over $2 million in Everett.
That means an employer with exactly 15 or exactly 500 employees lands in a different tier depending on which city document is read. The ordinance text, EMC 5.08, wasn't reviewed for this page, and this page doesn't settle the boundary; that's a question for the city or an employment attorney. Per the FAQ definitions, an employer below 15 employees with $2 million or less in Everett revenue falls outside both tiers, and this page doesn't cover how that employer is treated.
Source: City of Everett, Minimum Wage (Labor Standards) (no page date shown)
The Washington Department of Revenue's local rate table for Quarter 4, October 1 to December 31, 2026, lists Everett (location code 3105) at a combined 9.9%: 3.4% local plus 6.5% state. The same table lists Everett Non-RTA (code 4205) at 8.5% for the part of the city outside the Regional Transit Authority area. Both rates are valid only through December 31, 2026, and a first-quarter 2027 table may change them. This page didn't check which code a given address falls under.
Those rates reach only cleaning that counts as a retail sale. Washington excludes routine janitorial work, such as window washing, floor cleaning and waxing, in-place rug, drape, and upholstery cleaning, dusting, trash, and restroom sanitizing, from retail sales tax, while specialized or non-repetitive cleaning, like fire or flood clean-up or exterior wall cleaning, stays a retail sale. House cleaning's treatment is inferred, not confirmed: no Department of Revenue source names it, and a January 2020 appeals determination on residential hot tub cleaning says the statute makes no residential/commercial distinction. Washington also has a business and occupation (B&O) tax on gross receipts, which this page doesn't cover. The full lists are on my Washington sales tax page.
Source: Washington State Department of Revenue, Det. No. 20-0012, 41 WTD 24 (published February 4, 2022)
The city requires a City of Everett business license for everyone engaging in business within city limits, and says it's completely separate from a Washington State business license. Applications go through FileLocal and require a Department of Revenue UBI (Uniform Business Identifier) number. The city's page shows no date.
Source: City of Everett, Business Licenses (no page date shown)
Hours worked inside Everett get tracked apart from hours elsewhere, at the wage actually paid, so the city rate shows up in labor cost where it applies. A payroll system holding one minimum wage per employee is the worst fit here. It can't tell Everett hours from the rest, and it won't move to a new rate on July 1 by itself. Tips and service charges are recorded on top of wages, and sales tax collected on retail-sale cleaning sits in a liability account, out of income. My payroll page covers the setup.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep wages, tips, and sales tax recorded; which tier your company falls in is a question for the city or an employment attorney, and sales tax and B&O 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 Everett 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
Everett's covered tier changes on January 1 and again on July 1, so Everett hours are recorded on their own at the wage actually paid. Sales tax collected on retail-sale cleaning goes to a liability account, kept out of income. Book a short call below and tell me which Everett jobs you want to look at first.
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
Running Everett jobs and want city hours split from the rest before January? Tell me how payroll is set up today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
