Washington exempt salary threshold 2027.

The 2027 Washington salary level in one line

Washington's minimum wage rises to $17.73 on January 1, 2027, and the overtime-exempt salary level is tied to it. At an employer with 51 or more Washington-based employees the multiplier rises from 2.25 to 2.5 times the minimum wage for a 40-hour week: $1,773.00 a week ($92,196.00 a year). At an employer with 50 or fewer it stays at 2.25 times: $1,595.70 a week ($82,976.40 a year). From 2028 the multiplier is 2.5 for every employer.

How the number is built

WAC 296-128-545 sets the salary for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions as a multiple of the state minimum wage times 40 hours. For 2027 the rule reads 2.25 times for employers with fifty or fewer employees and 2.5 times for employers with more than fifty. L&I announced the 2027 minimum wage on September 30, 2026 as a 3.5 percent increase from $17.13 to $17.73, and published the resulting dollar figures.

The 2026 row is our arithmetic from the same rule ($17.13 × 2.25 × 40); the 2027 row matches L&I's release to the cent.

Which employer size applies

Size is based only on the number of Washington-based employees at the effective date of each period, and every Washington-based employee counts, full-time or part-time (WAC 296-128-545(10)). An employer classified as having fewer than fifty employees for paid family and medical leave purposes may rely on that classification for the following calendar year. When your head count is near 50, check the count on January 1 rather than at year end.

Computer professionals

The same rules let an exempt computer professional be paid hourly instead of by salary. The hourly rate is 3.5 times the minimum wage for every employer size: $62.06 an hour in 2027, $2.10 more than in 2026, according to L&I.

Federal comparison

The federal salary level in 29 CFR 541.600 reads $684 a week ($35,568 a year) as of our reading on November 1, 2026. A Washington worker has to clear the higher Washington figure, and the duties tests apply as well. Salary alone never makes someone exempt.

Worked example

A project manager earns $85,000 a year, which is $1,634.62 a week. At an employer with 50 or fewer Washington employees that clears the 2027 level of $1,595.70, so the salary test is met. At an employer with 51 or more it falls $138.38 a week short of $1,773.00. The employer then has two options: raise the salary to at least $92,196 or treat the job as non-exempt and pay overtime after 40 hours in a workweek. For overtime pay arithmetic see the overtime pay calculator.

What this does not cover

• The duties tests for executive, administrative, professional and computer exemptions, which are separate from salary.
• Other exemption categories with different pay rules, such as outside sales or some agricultural work.
• Local minimum wages in Seattle, Tukwila, SeaTac and elsewhere, which do not change the state salary level.
• Colorado, New York and other states, which index their own thresholds on different schedules.

Sources

Retrieved 2026-11-01. Each page was opened and read against the claim next to it.

• WAC 296-128-545, Washington Legislature: the 2.25 and 2.5 multipliers by year, the fifty-employee line and how employer size is counted.
• Washington L&I news release 26-17 (September 30, 2026): the $17.73 minimum wage, the 2027 weekly and annual figures and the $62.06 computer-professional rate.
• 29 CFR 541.600, amount of salary required (Cornell LII): the federal salary level of $684 a week.