effective JANUARY 1, 2024
Seattle's minimum wage is $19.97/hour for most workers effective January 1, 2024, but can be $17.25/hour, depending on what company you work for and how you’re paid. Here’s how the Seattle minimum wage works:
The minimum wage is $19.97 an hour for most workers in Seattle. This rate applies to all workers at McDonald's, Target, Starbucks, Tom Douglas Restaurants or any other large company or chain with more than 500 employees globally. This rate also applies to workers at smaller companies and chains with 500 or fewer employees globally, when the workers do not receive tips or healthcare benefits from your employer.
The minimum wage is $17.25 an hour and you must be paid at least $19.97 an hour in minimum compensation if you work at a smaller company or chain with 500 or fewer employees globally where you do receive tips or healthcare benefits from your employer. Your minimum compensation is the sum of your wage, your tips, and the cost to your employer of providing healthcare benefits. You can't be paid less than $17.25/hour in wages, regardless of the amount of your tips or benefits.*
*BEGINNING JANUARY 1ST, 2025, all employers, regardless of size, will pay one minimum wage. Like Large Employers, small employers will no longer be able to apply customer tips or payments towards medical benefits to their minimum wage obligations.
WHY ARE THERE TWO RATES?
The way the minimum wage law was written, workers get to $15/hour (adjusted for inflation) on different timelines, so that smaller companies & chains had more time to see the benefits of increased consumer demand. On January 1, 2025, the phase-in will be complete, and every worker will be covered by the same citywide inflation-adjusted minimum wage, regardless of the size of the employer you work for, and regardless of whether you get paid tips or receive health care benefits.
WHAT ABOUT TIPS OR SERVICE CHARGES?
Tips have to go to employees who provided the service. Employers or managers cannot take tips. Tips need to be listed on your paystub to count towards minimum compensation.
A service charge may sound like a tip, but they have different rules. Service charges have to say what percentage goes to workers, and service charges can't be used to cover the state minimum wage.
WHAT SHOULD I SEE ON MY PAYSTUB?
Your paystub has to show: rate of pay, any tips you received, gross wages, sick time accrual, and any deductions from your paycheck. For an employer to be able to count things towards minimum compensation you have to see it on your paystub. Tips or employer provided healthcare have to be stated on the paystub. If it is not on the paystub, it can't be counted towards minimum compensation.
HOW ABOUT IF I'M NOT A CITIZEN OR I DON'T HAVE A GREEN CARD?
All employees who work in Seattle are covered by this law, regardless of your documentation status. In fact, the City of Seattle has a policy of not asking about immigration status and not sharing information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Your immigration status is irrelevant to whether you are owed money for work you have already done.