Washington State Overtime Laws for Salaried Employees

If you draw a salary in Washington, you may still be owed overtime. State law treats salaried status as exempt from overtime only when the employer clears three separate tests: the salary has to meet a minimum dollar amount, it has to be paid as a true fixed salary, and the job duties have to fit one of a few narrow white-collar categories. Miss any one of them and Washington state overtime laws for salaried employees entitle you to time-and-a-half for every hour past 40 in a workweek. The salary floor in 2026 is $1,541.70 per week, or $80,168.40 per year, which is more than double the federal number and sweeps a lot of salaried workers back into overtime eligibility.

The 2026 Salary Floor

Washington ties its overtime salary threshold to the state minimum wage, which is $17.13 per hour in 2026. Under WAC 296-128-545, the threshold is 2.25 times the minimum wage for a 40-hour workweek, regardless of employer size. That works out to $1,541.70 per week or $80,168.40 per year.¹ A salary even slightly below that figure means overtime is owed, no matter the job title or the nature of the work.

The threshold is still climbing on a published schedule:¹

In 2027, small employers (50 or fewer employees) stay at 2.25 times the minimum wage. Large employers (51 or more) move to 2.5 times.
In 2028 and after, all employers must pay at least 2.5 times the minimum wage for an employee to be treated as exempt.

Washington also adjusts its minimum wage for inflation each year, so the 2027 and 2028 dollar figures will not be fixed until those minimum wage numbers are published. If you were classified as exempt a few years ago and your salary has not kept up, that is often where the problem starts.

The Salary Basis Rule

Hitting the dollar amount is not enough on its own. Pay has to come as a fixed, predetermined amount each pay period, and it cannot shrink because you worked fewer hours one week or produced less than usual.²

This is where employers lose the exemption most often. Docking a salaried worker’s pay because they left early on a slow day, or cutting the check during a lighter week, breaks the salary basis. Once the paycheck is treated as something that fluctuates with hours or output, the exemption is gone and overtime kicks in.² Reverting to a flat salary the next pay period does not undo it.

The Duties That Qualify an Employee as Exempt

Even with the salary and the fixed paycheck in place, exemption still turns on what the employee actually does day to day. Job titles are not the test. Washington recognizes four categories.

Executive

Primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, regularly directing the work of at least two other full-time employees (or the equivalent), and having real authority over hiring and firing or at least meaningful influence on those decisions. A shift lead who handles scheduling but has no voice in staffing does not qualify.³

Administrative

Primary duty is office or non-manual work directly tied to management or general business operations, performed with independent judgment on matters that genuinely affect company direction or finances.⁴ An HR manager choosing benefits packages fits; an executive assistant following set procedures does not, however senior the title sounds.

Professional

Covers two kinds of work. Learned professional work requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a specialized degree, which is the category doctors, lawyers, engineers, and accountants fall into. Creative professional work requires invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized artistic field, covering roles like musicians, writers, and graphic designers doing original composition.⁵

Computer Professional

A separate exemption under WAC 296-128-535 covers systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, and similar roles whose primary duty is systems analysis, software design and development, or creating and testing programs based on system specifications. Computer professionals can be paid hourly rather than salaried, but the hourly rate has to meet its own state-set threshold.⁶ People who repair hardware, or who merely use software as a tool in some other job, are not computer professionals under the rule.

What Overtime Pay Looks Like

If you are salaried but do not meet all three exemption tests, your employer owes 1.5 times your regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.⁷ Your regular rate is the weekly salary divided by the hours it was meant to cover, usually 40.

A worked example: a $1,400 weekly salary for a 40-hour schedule produces a regular rate of $35 per hour. Work 48 hours in a week, and the eight extra hours pay $52.50 each ($35 × 1.5), adding $420 to that paycheck.

One common offer from employers is comp time instead of cash. In Washington’s private sector, that arrangement is not allowed. Private employers cannot substitute compensatory time off for overtime wages.⁸ Government employers have more flexibility on comp time, but private-sector workers have to receive actual wages.

Deadlines, Damages, and Attorney Fees

You have three years from the date wages were due to file a claim for unpaid overtime. L&I will not investigate violations older than three years and cannot order back pay beyond that window.⁹ Every month you wait is a month that drops off the recoverable period.

Penalties can be significant. Under RCW 49.52.050, willfully paying an employee less than a statute requires is a misdemeanor. On the civil side, RCW 49.52.070 lets the affected employee recover double the unpaid wages as damages, plus attorney fees and court costs.¹⁰ An employee owed $15,000 in back overtime could walk away with $30,000 and have the legal bills covered.

Even outside the double-damages statute, any employee who successfully recovers unpaid wages in court is entitled to reasonable attorney fees paid by the employer.¹¹ That provision makes smaller claims financially viable that otherwise would not justify hiring a lawyer.

How to File

Workers denied overtime can file what L&I calls a Worker Rights Complaint, either through the department’s online portal or by downloading and mailing a paper form. Investigations typically wrap up within 60 days, though more complicated cases take longer.¹²

Filing with L&I is free and does not require an attorney. The three-year statute of limitations is tolled while L&I investigates, so the clock pauses and you do not lose recoverable time during the process.⁹ You can also file a private lawsuit in court instead of, or alongside, an L&I complaint.

Protection From Retaliation

Washington law prohibits employers from punishing you for exercising rights under the Minimum Wage Act, including filing an overtime complaint.¹³ If your employer fires you, cuts your hours, demotes you, or takes any other adverse action because you raised a wage issue, you can file a separate retaliation complaint with L&I within 180 days of the retaliatory action.¹⁴

If L&I finds retaliation occurred, it can order the employer to pay the earnings you lost, restore you to your former position with the same pay and benefits, and pay civil penalties. Interest accrues at 1% per month on any earnings owed.¹⁴

1
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-545 – Salary Thresholds
2
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Understanding the Differences Between Exempt and Nonexempt Salaried Employees
3
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-510 – Executive Exemption
4
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-520 – Administrative Exemption
5
Washington State Legislature. WAC 296-128-530 – Professional Exemption
6
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Computer Professional Job Duties Test
7
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Administrative Policy ES.A.8.2 – How to Calculate Overtime
8
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Overtime and Exemptions
9
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.48 RCW – Wages, Payment, Collection
10
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.52 RCW – Wages, Deductions, Contributions, Rebates
11
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.48 RCW – Wages, Payment, Collection
12
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Worker Rights Complaints
13
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage
14
Cornell Law Institute. Washington Administrative Code 296-128-780 – Enforcement, Retaliation