Washington’s exempt salary threshold rose again on January 1. If your salary sits below the new floor, your job title does not matter — you are entitled to overtime, and you may be owed back pay for every hour over forty you have worked since the change.
Every year the Department of Labor & Industries indexes the minimum salary an employer must pay before it can classify someone as exempt from overtime. The number is tied to a multiple of the state minimum wage, so it moves whether or not your employer notices. Many do not.
The Salary Test Is Only Half the Rule
Paying above the threshold does not make an employee exempt on its own. The position also has to satisfy a duties test — executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or computer professional. Employers routinely satisfy the salary half and fail the duties half, particularly with shift leads, assistant managers, and coordinators whose real authority is limited.
The analysis turns on what you actually do, not on what the job description says. If the majority of your week is spent performing the same work as the people you supervise, the executive exemption is unlikely to hold up.
A title does not decide overtime eligibility. The duties test does — and most employers apply it wrong.
What You May Be Owed
When a misclassification is established, recovery typically includes:
- Unpaid overtime at time-and-a-half for all hours over forty
- Interest on every pay period that was short
- Double damages where the withholding was willful
- Attorney fees and costs
Under RCW 49.52, wages willfully withheld can support an award of twice the unpaid amount, plus interest and attorney fees. That doubling provision is what makes these cases worth bringing even when the weekly shortfall looks modest.
What to Do Now
Save your pay stubs, your schedules, and any written description of your duties. Note the hours you actually work, including the ones spent answering messages after your shift. Then talk to a lawyer before you raise it with your employer — the sequence matters, and so does the record.
Wage claims carry short deadlines. The sooner records are preserved, the stronger the case.
