Salary Laws in Washington State: Overtime, Breaks, and Pay Rights

Salary laws in Washington state set one of the highest wage floors in the country, cap when a salary can be used to deny overtime, and give workers rights around pay transparency, sick leave, and breaks that go beyond federal law. For 2026, the statewide minimum wage is $17.13 per hour, and a salaried employee must earn at least $80,168.40 a year before an employer can even consider treating them as exempt from overtime.¹² Most of these rules come from the Washington Minimum Wage Act and the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, and the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) enforces them.

The Minimum Wage Floor

Washington’s 2026 minimum wage is $17.13 per hour, more than double the federal rate of $7.25.¹ L&I adjusts it every January 1 based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, so the number moves each year without new legislation.³

Washington also bans tip credits. Your employer must pay the full minimum wage before tips, and gratuities belong to you on top of that base pay.³

Several cities set higher rates, and the highest applicable rate always controls. Seattle’s minimum wage is $21.30 per hour in 2026. Tukwila requires $21.65 per hour at businesses with at least 15 employees worldwide or more than $2 million in gross revenue within city limits. SeaTac mandates $20.74 per hour for hospitality and transportation employers.⁴⁵ Being hired at the state minimum doesn’t waive the local rate if your work happens inside one of those cities.

When a Salary Does Not Exempt You From Overtime

Washington law requires overtime at one and a half times your regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.⁶ Being paid a salary does not, on its own, take you out of that rule. An employer can only classify you as exempt if two separate tests are both satisfied.

The Salary Threshold

For 2026, the salary threshold is $1,541.70 per week, or $80,168.40 per year, for all employers regardless of size. L&I sets the figure at 2.25 times the state minimum wage.² If your salary falls below that line, you’re owed overtime, no matter your job title or duties.

The Duties Test

Clearing the threshold isn’t enough. The employee’s actual day-to-day work must fit one of the categories in WAC 296-128: executive, administrative, or professional. The executive exemption, for example, requires that managing the business or a department be the employee’s primary duty, that they regularly direct two or more full-time employees, and that they have real authority over hiring and firing.⁷ A “manager” who spends most of a shift stocking shelves or running a register is probably not exempt, even if the salary is high enough. Title doesn’t decide the question; the work does.

Pay Transparency and Equal Pay

Washington’s Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (Chapter 49.58 RCW) reaches into how jobs are posted, what employers can ask about your past pay, and how much workers can be paid differently for similar work.

Salary Ranges in Job Postings

Employers with 15 or more employees must include the wage scale or salary range in every job posting, along with a general description of benefits and other compensation. That applies to external listings, internal transfer postings, and openings routed through third-party recruiters.⁸ The posting must show both a minimum and maximum the employer genuinely expects to pay. “Starting at $25/hour” is not a range.

Salary History Ban

Employers cannot ask about your previous wages and cannot require your pay history to meet any specific criteria as a condition of considering you for a role. They can only confirm prior pay if you voluntarily share it, or after they’ve already made a compensation offer.⁹

Equal Pay Between Similar Jobs

Pay discrimination based on gender or any other protected class between similarly employed workers is prohibited. Similar employment means comparable skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions at the same employer. Pay differences are only allowed when explained fully by legitimate factors such as seniority, merit, or a productivity system, and a worker’s prior salary history cannot be used to justify paying them less.¹⁰

Your Right to Discuss Pay

Your employer cannot require you to keep your wages secret or sign a nondisclosure agreement about pay. You can ask coworkers what they earn, share your own numbers, and discuss compensation without discipline or retaliation.¹¹ The National Labor Relations Act adds a parallel federal protection for most private-sector employees.¹²

Paid Sick Leave

Every Washington employer must provide paid sick leave to all employees, including part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers. You accrue at least one hour for every 40 hours worked and can start using it after 90 calendar days of employment.¹³

Sick leave covers your own illness, injury, or preventive care, care for a family member, absences tied to domestic violence, and closures ordered by a public official for health reasons. Your employer pays your normal hourly rate for hours used and cannot count sick leave use as an absence that triggers discipline.

Unused leave carries over year to year, with a minimum carryover balance of 40 hours. If you leave a job and are rehired within 12 months, your prior unused balance must be reinstated. Employers must give you a monthly statement showing accrued, used, and available hours.¹³

Meal and Rest Breaks

Washington requires both, and these rules are more generous than federal law, which requires no breaks for adult workers.

Meal periods: at least 30 minutes, beginning no earlier than two hours and no later than five hours into a shift. No employee can be required to work more than five consecutive hours without a meal break. Working more than three hours past a normal shift earns an additional 30-minute meal period during the overtime portion.
Rest breaks: at least 10 minutes of paid time for every four hours worked, as close to the midpoint of that period as possible. No employee can be required to work more than three consecutive hours without a rest break.

Meal periods are unpaid unless your employer requires you to stay on duty or remain at the worksite. Rest breaks are always paid.¹⁴

Paychecks: Timing, Final Pay, and Deductions

Employers must pay wages at least once a month, no later than ten days after the pay period closes.¹⁵ Biweekly and semimonthly schedules both meet that standard.

When you leave a job, whether you quit or are fired, your final paycheck is due at the end of the established pay period. If your regular payday is Friday and you’re terminated Monday, the employer has until that Friday. The statute doesn’t impose a separate immediate-payment requirement on most employees, though collective bargaining agreements can set different terms.¹⁵

Deductions are tightly limited. Under WAC 296-126-025, employers cannot deduct for cash register shortages, breakage, or lost equipment. Any deduction beyond what the law requires (taxes, court-ordered support) needs your specific advance written authorization, and even then cannot push your pay below the minimum wage.¹⁶ A walked customer check, a broken glass, or a short till cannot be charged to you.

Employee or Independent Contractor

Every protection above depends on being classified as an employee. Washington uses a six-part test (seven for construction workers), and every element must be met for someone to qualify as an independent contractor. The worker must be free from the employer’s control and direction, perform work outside the employer’s usual business or locations, maintain their own established business, file their own expense schedules, hold accounts with the Department of Revenue, and keep separate business books and records.¹⁷ Fail any one, and the worker is an employee for state law purposes. Misclassified workers may be owed back overtime, sick leave, and other benefits on top of what the employer owes L&I in premiums, penalties, and interest.

If Your Employer Breaks These Rules

You can file a wage complaint with L&I directly, without a lawyer, and the agency investigates on your behalf.¹ Retaliation for filing a complaint, discussing pay, or asking about compensation is prohibited under the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act.¹¹ Federal law adds a parallel layer through the FLSA, which covers oral or written complaints, including internal ones, and provides remedies including reinstatement, back pay, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹⁸ Equal pay violations can also be charged as a misdemeanor.

1
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage
2
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Salary Threshold Implementation Schedule
3
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.46.020 – Minimum Hourly Wage – Paid Sick Leave
4
City of Seattle. Minimum Wage
5
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Local Minimum Wage Rates
6
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.46.130 – Minimum Rate of Compensation for Employment in Excess of Forty Hour Workweek – Exceptions
7
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Executive Job Duties Test Fact Sheet
8
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.58.110 – Disclosure of Wage and Salary Information
9
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.58.100 – Employer Seeking Wage and Salary History of Applicants Prohibited
10
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.58.020 – Wage Discrimination Based on Gender Prohibited
11
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.58.040 – Certain Employer Conduct Prohibited
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act
13
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Paid Sick Leave Minimum Requirements
14
Washington State Legislature. Washington Administrative Code 296-126-092
15
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.48.010 – Payment of Wages
16
Washington State Legislature. Washington Administrative Code 296-126-025 – Deductions
17
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Independent Contractors
18
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act