Washington’s minimum wage will rise 3.5 percent next year to $17.73 an hour. The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) announced the increase today; it takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Washington employers must pay most employees at least the minimum wage for every hour worked.
State law requires L&I to calculate Washington’s minimum wage for the coming year using the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). L&I compares the CPI-W from August of the previous year to August of the current year and adjusts the minimum wage based on the percentage change.
Washington’s current state minimum wage is $17.13 an hour, but local governments can set higher minimums. Seattle, SeaTac, Tukwila, Renton, Bellingham, Everett, Burien, and unincorporated King County currently have higher minimum wages than the state. The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour.
More information about the minimum wage is available on L&I’s website, along with details about overtime, rest breaks, meal periods, and how to file a wage complaint.
The minimum wage rate is also used to set levels for several other workplace wage-related rights in our state.
Overtime-exempt employees
L&I uses a multiplier of the minimum wage to calculate the minimum salary that executive, administrative, professional workers, and certain computer professionals must earn to be considered exempt from receiving overtime pay.
Under current rules, large employers with 51 or more employees must pay overtime-exempt workers at least 2.25 times the minimum wage. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, the multiplier will rise to 2.5 times the minimum wage. That means an employee must earn at least $1,773 a week ($92,196 a year) to be exempt from receiving overtime pay.
The multiplier is not scheduled to increase beyond 2.5 times the minimum wage.
Small businesses with up to 50 workers are also currently required to pay 2.25 times the minimum wage to any workers they want to be exempt from overtime requirements. That multiplier remains at 2.25 in 2027. That means an exempt employee must earn at least $1,595 a week ($82,976 a year) for an employer to avoid paying the worker overtime.
The multiplier for small businesses is not scheduled to go up to 2.5 until 2028.
The same rules allow exempt computer professionals to be paid an hourly rate rather than a minimum salary. That hourly rate is 3.5 times the minimum wage, regardless of employer size. In 2027, the hourly rate will be $62.06, which is $2.10 more than this year.
Young workers
Under the law, employers are allowed to pay 14- and 15-year-old workers 85 percent of the minimum wage. In 2027, the minimum wage for these younger workers will be $15.07 an hour, up from the current youth minimum of $14.56.
Minimum pay for rideshare drivers
The minimum pay that rideshare drivers will earn is going up Jan. 1, as well.
- For trips within Seattle in 2027, drivers will earn 72 cents per passenger platform minute and $1.69 per passenger platform mile, or $6.34 per trip, whichever is greater.
- For trips outside of Seattle in 2027, drivers will earn 41 cents per passenger platform minute and $1.43 per passenger platform mile, or $3.68 per trip, whichever is greater.
- The remittance fee, which funds a nonprofit center that supports rideshare drivers, will be 16 cents.
Changes to non-compete clauses
State law will prohibit non-compete clauses starting in July 2027. For the six months before the ban takes effect, L&I will use the CPI-W to calculate the minimum annual salary a worker must earn for an employer to enforce a non-compete clause or contract.
Between January and June 2027, the annual salary threshold for employees will be $131,326. For independent contractors, the annual salary threshold for the six months will be $328,316.
Leasing fee for adult entertainment establishments
State law also calls for L&I to adjust the limit each year on how much adult entertainment establishments can charge adult entertainers to use their premises to entertain customers.
Based on the CPI-W index, the 2027 maximum leasing fee for an eight-hour period is increasing to the lesser of $159.64 or 30 percent of amounts collected by an entertainer. The amounts collected do not include those collected for adult entertainment in a private performance area.
Wage complaints investigated
L&I enforces the state’s wage-and-hour laws and investigates wage-payment complaints. A worker rights complaint can be filed online, downloaded and mailed to the agency, or at a local L&I office.
For questions about worker rights and pay, employers and workers can call L&I’s Employment Standards Program at 360-902-5316 or toll free 1-866-219-7321.