Washington State Exempt Salary Threshold: Schedule and Duties Tests

In 2026, the Washington exempt salary threshold is $1,541.70 per week, or $80,168.40 per year, and it applies to every employer in the state regardless of size.¹ Any salaried worker earning less than that is entitled to overtime pay, no matter what their job title says. Meeting the salary number is only step one — the employee also has to be paid on a true salary basis and perform qualifying duties.

The 2026 Threshold

For calendar year 2026, employers must pay at least $1,541.70 per week to classify an employee as exempt from overtime under WAC 296-128-545.² The figure comes from the 2026 state minimum wage of $17.13 per hour multiplied by 40 hours, then by this year’s multiplier of 2.25: $17.13 × 40 × 2.25 = $1,541.70.³ Multiply by 52 weeks and the annual threshold lands at $80,168.40.

If an employee’s fixed salary is even slightly under $1,541.70 per week, they are non-exempt and owed time-and-a-half for every hour past 40 in a workweek. That’s true even if their duties look “managerial” and their title says otherwise.

In 2025, small employers (1–50 workers) sat at $1,332.80 per week and large employers (51+) at $1,499.40. In 2026, both groups share the same threshold for the first time since 2024, so employer size does not affect compliance this year.¹

Phase-In Schedule Through 2028

Washington is in the final stretch of a multi-year ramp-up adopted by the Department of Labor and Industries. The threshold is set as a multiplier of the state minimum wage, and both the multiplier and the minimum wage keep rising.¹

Small employers (1–50 employees):

Jan. 1, 2026: 2.25x — $1,541.70/week ($80,168.40/year)
Jan. 1, 2027: 2.25x — $1,583.10/week ($82,321.20/year)
Jan. 1, 2028: 2.5x — $1,796.00/week ($93,392.00/year)

Large employers (51+ employees):

Jan. 1, 2026: 2.25x — $1,541.70/week ($80,168.40/year)
Jan. 1, 2027: 2.5x — $1,759.00/week ($91,468.00/year)
Jan. 1, 2028: 2.5x — $1,796.00/week ($93,392.00/year)

The two tracks converge in 2026, split briefly in 2027, and merge for good in 2028. Businesses near the 50-employee line should watch headcount closely in 2027, because crossing from 50 to 51 workers pushes the multiplier from 2.25x to 2.5x. Washington counts every employee working in the state — full-time, part-time, and seasonal — when placing an employer in the small or large category.⁴

The phase-in does not end in 2028; it stabilizes there. WAC 296-128-545 fixes the multiplier at 2.5 times the minimum wage “and each following year.”² Because the minimum wage is indexed to inflation, the exempt salary threshold will keep rising automatically every January 1.

Salary Alone Doesn’t Make an Employee Exempt

Paying someone above $1,541.70 per week is necessary but not sufficient. Washington requires all three prongs of the exemption test to hold at the same time:⁵

Salary basis. The employee receives a fixed, predetermined salary each pay period that doesn’t fluctuate with hours worked or quality of work.
Salary threshold. That fixed salary meets or exceeds the amount set for the calendar year.
Duties test. The employee’s actual work fits one of the recognized exempt categories.

Fail any single prong and the employee is non-exempt. Employers most often stumble on the salary basis rule (docking pay in ways that break the fixed-salary requirement) or the duties test (title inflation).

Which Duties Qualify

Job title carries no weight on its own. What matters is what the person actually does across a typical workweek.

Executive. Primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, and the employee regularly directs the work of at least two full-time employees. Hiring and firing authority, or real influence over those decisions, is the marker.
Administrative. Office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations, with independent judgment on significant matters. This covers roles like HR leads, finance managers, and compliance officers, not administrative assistants who follow set procedures.
Professional. Advanced knowledge in a specialized field, typically gained through extended education. Lawyers, engineers, accountants, and licensed healthcare professionals usually qualify.

The word “primary” is doing real work in these definitions. An employee who spends most of the week stocking shelves, running a register, or handling routine calls doesn’t become exempt just because they occasionally sign off on a scheduling decision.

Computer Professionals

Systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, and similar roles can qualify under WAC 296-128-535 if their primary duties involve designing, developing, testing, or analyzing computer systems and programs.⁶ They can be paid either on a salary that meets the standard threshold, or on an hourly basis at 3.5 times the state minimum wage. For 2026, that hourly rate is $59.96.³ The duties test still applies. A help desk technician troubleshooting standard software issues does not qualify even at the right pay rate.

Outside Salespeople

Employees whose primary duty is making sales or obtaining contracts and who regularly work away from the employer’s place of business fall under WAC 296-128-540.⁷ The salary threshold does not apply to them. They can be paid by salary, commission, or fee, as long as the employer informs them of their status. Inside sales representatives working from company premises are not covered by this exemption.

Federal vs. Washington Numbers

The federal salary threshold under the Fair Labor Standards Act is $684 per week ($35,568 per year), where it has sat since 2019 after courts blocked the U.S. Department of Labor’s planned increases.⁸ Washington’s 2026 threshold sits $857.70 per week above that.

When state and federal rules conflict, the more protective standard governs.⁹ For any employer operating in Washington, the state figure is the controlling number. Benchmarking against the federal threshold leaves employees underpaid and the business open to back-pay claims. Washington has no state highly compensated employee exemption, so the federal $107,432 threshold remains available as a lighter-duties pathway on top of state rules.

What Misclassification Costs

Getting classification wrong triggers exposure from two directions.

Under state law, an employee who wins a wage claim in court is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees on top of the unpaid wages. Repeat willful violators can face civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, and violating the state’s wage payment requirements is a misdemeanor.¹⁰

Federal law piles on. Under the FLSA, an employer who violates overtime rules owes the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, doubling the liability, and the court awards attorney’s fees to the employee.¹¹ Willful federal violations can carry fines up to $10,000, and repeat offenders face up to six months in jail.

These penalties stack. A single employee misclassified for several years can generate years of unpaid overtime at time-and-a-half, doubled by liquidated damages, plus attorney’s fees under both state and federal claims. Across multiple workers, the numbers compound fast. Raising a salary to meet the threshold, or reclassifying the worker as non-exempt and paying overtime honestly, is almost always cheaper than defending a wage claim later.

1
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Salary Threshold Implementation Schedule
2
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-545 – Salary Threshold for Executive, Administrative, Professional, and Outside Salesperson Employees
3
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage
4
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Changes to Overtime Rules
5
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Overtime Rules Resources
6
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-535 – Professional Employees
7
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-540 – Outside Salesperson Employees
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
10
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.48.020 – Penalty for Noncompliance
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties