Washington’s Minimum Salary Expected To Exceed $93,000
In Washington, employees are entitled to receive overtime pay for work in excess of forty hours per week. Employees may be exempt from overtime pay if they meet one of sixteen exemption categories. Exempt employees typically include executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees, as well as certain computer professionals, who are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The exemption status is based on their job duties, and responsibilities. In 2020, Washington State instituted a salary threshold which requires any “exempt” employee to be paid a minimum salary that is tied directly to the hourly minimum wage under the Washington State Minimum Wage Act (MWA).
Beginning July 1, 2020, the minimum salary an employee was required to be paid in order to remain exempt from overtime equaled 1.25 times the minimum wage for a forty-hour workweek. This made the minimum annual salary $35,100 for 2020. Each year, the multiplier would increase depending on the size of the company, and the Washington Department of Labor and Industries published a schedule of minimum threshold salaries through 2028. By January 1, 2028 employers of all sizes will be required to pay exempt employees a minimum threshold salary of at least 2.5 times the Washington minimum wage for a forty-hour workweek. Because it is anticipated that the State minimum wage will approach $18.00 per hour in 2028, that minimum threshold salary will likely exceed $93,000 per year.
Presently, the minimum wage for 2023 is $15.74. Thus, the minimum threshold salary threshold necessary to qualify for the exemption is $57,293.600 ($1,101.80/week) for employers with fifty or fewer employees and $65,478.40 ($1,259.20/week) for employers with fifty-one or more employees. Accordingly, employees not receiving that much or more in compensation are eligible for overtime, and any failure by an employer to pay overtime is a violation of the MWA. The Washington legislature has provided that employers who are found to have violated the MWA, in addition to paying money damages to the injured employee, must pay the attorney’s fees and costs incurred by the employee in prosecuting the claim.