Seattle minimum wage in 2026

Seattle's rate in four numbers

2026 rate

$21.30an hour, all employer sizes

Tipped workers

$21.30no tip credit in Washington

Effective

Jan 1, 2026Seattle Office of Labor Standards

Next change

$22.14from Jan 1, 2027

Seattle used to run two schedules, one for large employers and one for small ones. Since January 1, 2025 there is one rate for everyone, so a three-person coffee shop and a 5,000-person employer both owe $21.30 an hour. The rate rises every January 1.

The suburbs are a patchwork. Several King County cities kept size tiers, and the state rate applies wherever no local law does:

Who must be paid the Seattle rate

The ordinance applies to work performed inside Seattle city limits. A crew based in Bellevue that spends a week on a Capitol Hill job is doing Seattle work for those hours. If the same people work in Kent the next week, the city rate does not follow them there. Keep records of hours by location; when you cannot show where an hour was worked, you will have trouble defending a lower rate for it.

Counting employees no longer matters for the Seattle rate itself, since every size pays the same. It still matters in Burien, Renton, Tukwila and unincorporated King County, where tiers depend on headcount and sometimes worldwide revenue.

Tips, service charges and the $21.30 floor

Washington does not allow a tip credit, so a Seattle server, bartender or delivery driver earns at least $21.30 an hour in wages, and tips go on top. Tips do not count toward the minimum. A restaurant used to budgeting a tipped cash wage in another state, such as $11.35 in New York City or $2.13 under the federal rules, needs to rebuild its labor model from the full rate.

Overtime past 40 hours a week is time and a half: $31.95 an hour at the 2026 minimum.

Seattle, Washington and the 2027 increase

On January 1, 2027 the Seattle rate moves from $21.30 to $22.14, up $0.84, while the state rate moves from $17.13 to $17.73. A full-time Seattle worker at $22.14 earns $46,051.20 a year, $1,747.20 more than in 2026. Statewide figures, youth rates and the full list of local rates are on the Washington minimum wage page.

For comparison along the West Coast, Los Angeles pays $18.42 from July 1, 2026, and the Portland metro area in Oregon pays $16.80.

Employer cost of a full-time Seattle worker

At $21.30 for 2,080 hours, pay is $852 a week, $3,692 a month and $44,304 a year. On top of that:

• FICA: 7.65% of $44,304 = $3,389.26.
• FUTA: 0.6% of the first $7,000 = $42.00.
• Washington unemployment: new employers pay their industry's average rate, not a flat rate, on wages up to $78,200. The whole $44,304 is taxable, so get your rate from the Employment Security Department before you price a role.
• Paid Family and Medical Leave: 1.13% of wages, 28.57% of it paid by the employer. Employers with fewer than 50 employees can skip their share; at 50 or more it is $143.03 on this worker.
• WA Cares Fund: 0.58%, deducted from the employee.

For an employer under 50 staff, the federal taxes come to $3,431.26, or $47,735.26 with wages. That is a partial total. It leaves out Washington unemployment tax, workers comp and Seattle's payroll expense tax, a city business tax we did not research: its rates, thresholds and who owes it are not covered here, so check with the City of Seattle before you treat any figure as all-in. Registration steps are in the Washington payroll tax guide.

Payroll setup for Seattle staff

The two things to get right are a work location on every employee so Seattle hours get Seattle pay, and the PFML and WA Cares deductions. Gusto Simple lists $49 a month plus $6 per person (checked October 16, 2026). Other options and their scores are in our payroll software rankings, and payroll cost by team size shows the bill for 5, 10 and 25 people.

Try other wages in the employee cost calculator, or compare cities on the 2026 minimum wage table.