Washington’s new minimum wage for 2025 is set

Every year, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries sets a new minimum wage.

Beginning Jan. 1, Washington workers must be paid at least $16.66 per hour.

Washington currently has the highest minimum wage of any state in the country at $16.28 per hour. The Evergreen State is also home to the three cities with the highest minimum wage of any other in the country: Tukwila, Seattle and SeaTac, according to Investopedia.

Renton, Bellingham and Burien are additional cites with minimum wages greater than that set by the department, according to its website.

The federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 an hour in 2025.

During the month of September, Labor and Industries worked to adjust the minimum wage based on the Washington consumer price index, which measures price changes of a range of goods and services paid by urban consumers, according to its website.

In a Monday news release, Labor and Industries announced the roughly 40-cent pay bump was primarily a response to an increase in the cost of housing and food.

Beginning next year, the minimum wage for workers 14 and 15 years of age will increase to $14.16, the release said. Minimum wages for rideshare drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft will also increase.

Excluding trips in Seattle, Washington drivers will receive a baseline payment of $3.45 each trip. For longer trips, they will earn 39 cents per passenger per minute, plus $1.34 per mile, according to the release.

The pay structure for drivers was put into effect Jan. 1, 2023, according to its website.