Washington Minimum Wage 2026: $17.13, the Highest State Rate in the Country

Washington’s minimum wage is $17.13 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, a 2.8% increase from $16.66 in 2025 under the state’s CPI-based annual adjustment. It's the highest minimum wage of any state (the District of Columbia’s $18.40 is higher), and Washington allows no tip credit at all — tipped employees receive the full $17.13 in direct wages before any tips.

Washington at a glance

Local rates that run well above the state minimum

Several Washington cities, mostly in the Seattle metro area, set their own minimum wage above the state rate, already the highest of any state. Verified 2026 local rates:

Several of these cities scale the rate down for smaller employers — Renton, Everett, Burien, and King County all pay smaller companies a lower rate than the figures above, which are the top tier. Check the specific city’s employer-size thresholds before setting pay.

Renton, Everett and Bellevue minimum wage 2026

Renton and Everett both set their own minimum wage, and both raised the rate for mid-size employers mid-year on July 1, 2026. Bellevue has no local minimum wage ordinance, so the state rate applies there. Rates per the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries local minimum wage list:

Renton minimum wage 2026

Large employers (more than 500 employees) pay $21.57 all year. Employers with 15 to 500 employees paid $20.57 from January 1 and moved up to the same $21.57 on July 1, 2026. Employers with 14 or fewer employees are generally not covered and pay the $17.13 state minimum, though the state’s Renton summary counts any business grossing more than $2 million a year as covered.

Everett minimum wage 2026

Everett’s large-employer rate is $20.77 for employers with 500 or more employees. Employers with 15 to 499 employees paid $18.77 through June 30 and $19.77 from July 1, 2026. The city also covers smaller businesses with more than $2 million in annual gross revenue in Everett. Employers with 14 or fewer employees that don’t meet that test pay the state rate.

Bellevue minimum wage 2026

Bellevue does not appear on L&I’s list of Washington cities with a local minimum wage, so the minimum in Bellevue is the statewide $17.13 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. As everywhere in Washington, there is no tip credit.

Seattle minimum wage 2026

Seattle’s minimum wage is $21.30 an hour from January 1, 2026, up from $20.76 in 2025, for every employer regardless of size. Since January 1, 2025, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards no longer lets small employers count tips or medical benefit payments toward the minimum, so a tipped server in Seattle is owed $21.30 in wages before tips. The rate rises every January 1 with the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue CPI-W, and the city announces the next year’s figure in the fall; the 2027 rate had not been posted when we checked on September 24, 2026. For a Seattle address near the city line, the L&I local rate list shows neighboring Tukwila, Burien and unincorporated King County set their own rates.

What this means for hiring

Washington already sets the highest wage floor of any state, and a role inside Seattle, Tukwila, or one of the other listed cities pushes that floor $2–4 higher still — a job ad priced at the $17.13 state rate for a Seattle-based role would already be below the legal minimum. Because there’s no tip credit anywhere in the state, tipped roles here should be priced and advertised at the full applicable rate, state or local, with no lower cash-wage figure to plan around.

For breaks, overtime, final paychecks and hiring rules in Washington, see our Washington labor laws guide for employers.

Frequently asked questions

Part of Boostpoint’s minimum wage by state series.