As all Washington employers know, Washington employees who are nonexempt (e.g., not salaried) must be paid an hourly minimum wage. Additionally, Washington establishes minimum salaries for exempt (i.e., salaried) employees, which tracks the minimum wage.
As all Washington employers also know, Washington’s minimum wage is indexed to inflation and goes up every January 1. Given the high rate of inflation this year, Washington employers should anticipate significant increases in both the state minimum wage and exempt salary requirements, effective January 1, 2023. Employers with Seattle/SeaTac hourly employees will likely see even more substantial increases for those employees.
The Washington Minimum Wage Act (MWA) RCW 49.46, sets the minimum hourly wage all nonexempt employees must be paid in the state of Washington, presently $14.49/hour. Seattle and SeaTac have local ordinances establishing higher minimum wages within those municipalities, of $17.27 and $17.54/hour respectively for 2022.
The MWA requires that the state minimum wage be adjusted annually “to maintain employee purchasing power.” Seattle and SeaTac similarly adjust their minimum wages each year for inflation. This is accomplished by increasing the minimum wages to track inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners, or CPI-W. For the state, the analysis examines the change in the CPI-W from August of one year to the next August to determine the required change to the minimum wage. An...
Conspiracy theories around Artemis II have spread online after the crew returned safely from its lunar mission, with fake NASA claims and old Apollo 11 hoax stories gaining traction on social medi...