Hourly, Salary Minimums Increase January 1

Washington State Labor and Industries (L&I) has announced that 2023 minimum wage rate will be set at $16.28 which is a 3.4 percent increase over 2023.

The calculation for minimum wage is based on the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). In making the calculation, L&I compares the CPI-W index from August of the previous year to the index for August of the current year.

According to minimum-wage.org, Washington will have the highest statewide minimum wage in the country. The highest minimum wage in the nation, including municipalities that can set their own rates, is in Washington State, Sea Tac at $19.06 followed by Seattle at $18.69. The federal minimum wage is $7.25.

The state minimum wage applies to workers age 16 and older. Under state law, employers can pay 85 percent of the minimum wage to workers ages 14-15. For 2024, the wage for that younger group will be $13.84 per hour.

Salary workers may also be affected, since L&I updated the overtime rules in 2020, creating an eight-year implementation schedule that incrementally raises the multiplier until it reaches 2.5 times in 2028.

The pace of the increase is no longer based on the size of the employer. The 2023 minimum salary for exempt employees working for both small employers (1-50 employees) and large employers (51 or more employees)is 2 times the minimum wage. That means an exempt employee will have to earn at least $1,302.40 a week ($67,724.80 a year).

To be exempt from earning overtime, a worker must earn at least the minimum salary and their duties must meet a jobs test.

Under the same rules, exempt computer professionals may be paid an hourly rate rather than with a salary. The applicable hourly rate is 3.5 times the minimum wage, regardless of employer size. For 2024, that will be $56.98 per hour.

Minimum pay drivers for transportation network companies like Lyft and Uber will earn beginning Jan. 1 is also going up. The minimum pay is one of the new rights and protections granted to TNC drivers by legislation passed in 2022.

See lni.wa.gov for more information.