What Is the Minimum Salary in Washington State?

The minimum salary in Washington State to classify an employee as exempt from minimum wage and overtime is $80,168.40 per year, or $1,541.70 per week, effective January 1, 2026. That figure applies to every employer in the state regardless of headcount, and salary alone is not enough on its own — the job duties also have to meet the test for an executive, administrative, or professional role.¹

The 2026 Exempt Salary Threshold

Washington calculates the exempt salary threshold as a multiple of the state minimum wage worked out over a 40-hour week. For 2026, that multiplier is 2.25, applied to the $17.13 statewide minimum wage. The result is $1,541.70 per week, or $80,168.40 annualized.¹

In earlier years, Washington used two separate thresholds: a lower one for small employers with 1 to 50 employees and a higher one for large employers with 51 or more. The 2026 schedule brings both groups to the same 2.25 multiplier, so the size of your employer no longer changes the number you have to clear.

Salary Alone Does Not Make You Exempt

Earning above $80,168.40 does not automatically strip you of overtime rights. Washington requires that an exempt employee pass two tests: the salary test described above, and a duties test tied to the specific exemption category — executive, administrative, or professional.² A worker paid a high salary who performs routine non-exempt duties remains entitled to overtime.

Conversely, if your salary sits below the threshold, no duties analysis saves the classification. You are non-exempt by default and entitled to the hourly minimum wage and overtime at one and a half times your regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek.

Different Rules for Certain Roles

A handful of exempt categories follow their own pay rules rather than the standard salary threshold.

Computer professionals may be paid hourly instead of on a salary, but the hourly rate must be at least 3.5 times the state minimum wage. In 2026 that is $59.96 per hour.³
Outside salespeople who regularly work away from the employer’s place of business making sales or taking orders are exempt without a specific salary floor.
Lawyers and physicians actively practicing their profession are exempt regardless of salary.
Teachers whose primary duty is teaching in an educational setting are exempt if paid on a salary or fee basis, with no specific salary floor required.²

If your position does not fit one of these carve-outs, the standard $80,168.40 threshold is what matters.

What Happens If Your Salary Is Below the Threshold

A salaried worker earning less than $1,541.70 per week in 2026 cannot legally be classified as exempt under Washington law. That means your employer owes you the state minimum wage of $17.13 per hour for every hour worked, including time spent opening or closing the business, in required trainings, and in mandatory meetings.⁴ It also means time-and-a-half for every hour past 40 in a workweek. Employers cannot average your hours across multiple weeks to dodge overtime, and they cannot ask you to waive the right even if you would agree.

If you work in Seattle, Tukwila, Burien, Renton, Everett, SeaTac, or Bellingham, the local hourly minimum may be higher than the state figure, and your employer owes you whichever rate is higher.⁵

How the Threshold Changes Each Year

The exempt salary threshold moves every January 1 because it is pegged to the state minimum wage, and the minimum wage itself is adjusted annually using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the twelve months ending the prior September 1.⁶ The Department of Labor & Industries announces the new rate by September 30 for the following year.⁴

The statute does not allow the figure to drop even if prices fall, so the practical floor only ever rises or holds steady. Because the computer professional hourly rate and the exempt salary threshold are both multipliers of the minimum wage, a single CPI-W bump moves all three numbers together.

If You Think You’ve Been Misclassified

Workers who suspect their employer has classified them as salaried exempt without meeting the salary test or the duties test can file a workplace rights complaint with the Department of Labor & Industries. The complaint is available online, and gathering your pay stubs, offer letter, job description, and time records before filing will make the investigation faster.⁷ Employers are required to keep payroll records showing actual hours worked and wages paid for four calendar years after the year the work was performed, so the documentation needed to prove a claim should exist.⁸

You have three years from the date of the violation to file a wage complaint. If your employer retaliates for filing — by cutting hours, demoting you, or firing you — a separate retaliation complaint must be filed within 180 days.⁹

The financial stakes for the employer are substantial. An employee can sue to recover double the amount of unpaid wages as damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.¹⁰ Willfully paying less than required or falsifying payroll records is also a misdemeanor.¹¹ One limit worth knowing: the double-damages remedy is not available to an employee who knowingly agreed in writing to a lower wage, though the underlying wage obligation still stands.

1
Department of Labor and Industries. Salary Threshold Implementation Schedule
2
Department of Labor and Industries. Exemption from Minimum Wage Act Requirements for Administrative Employees
3
Lni.wa.gov. Washington’s Minimum Wage Going Up to $17.13 an Hour in 2026
4
Lni.wa.gov. Minimum Wage
5
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Local Minimum Wage Rates
6
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.46.020 – Minimum Hourly Wage – Paid Sick Leave
7
Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). Workplace Rights Complaint
8
Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Wash. Admin. Code 192-310-050 – What Records Must Every Employer Keep?
9
Lni.wa.gov. Worker Rights Complaints
10
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Title 49 Chapter 49-52 Section 49-52-070 – Civil Liability for Double Damages
11
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.52 RCW – Wages – Deductions