Salaried Overtime Rules

The Chamber has been keeping you up-to-date with changes to the overtime rules for salaried employees. Because 2020 focused on Covid and its impacts on businesses, we don’t want this to sneak up on you. Somehow, surprisingly, there’s just over 2 months left in the year. Therefore, businesses need to plan for the possibility that employee wages may need to be adjusted.

In July, we let you know that these changes were coming. Then, the estimates on that chart were slightly higher than the current estimates for overtime rules for salaried employees.

These rules began affecting Washington employers in July of this year. At that time, all businesses needed to pay salaried employees 1.25 times the state minimum wage. With the new year, that bumps up to 1.5 times for smaller businesses. However, the bump is higher (1.75 times) for larger buinesses with over 50 employees. In fact, that makes about a $7000 yearly difference.

On January 1, 2021, salaried staff must make an annual salary of $42,712 if your business has 50 or fewer employees. That bumps up to $49,831 for larger businesses with 51 or more employees. (See most recent chart below for expected adjustments through January 2028.)

For a full description of the rules and who is impacted by them, check out the Department of Labor and Industries website.