What do you need to know to hire in Washington?
No state income tax, a $17.13 minimum among the highest in the US, and a benefit stack that runs Paid Leave, WA Cares and paid sick leave on top. Each Washington guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· Washington, United States guide
Illustration · Olympia, Washington
Washington takes no state income tax, so the withholding math reads simple. The weight sits on the benefit side: a $17.13 minimum among the highest in the US, Washington Paid Leave at 1.13% of wages, WA Cares long-term care, and paid sick leave from day one.
The federal floor is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA set the baseline. Everything Washington adds on top is what these guides cover.
Most employers budget for the $78,200 unemployment wage base and miss the 1.13% Paid Leave premium and the WA Cares deduction stacked beside it. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in Washington?
Washington runs on the federal employment floor with no state income tax but one of the heaviest benefit stacks in the country. There's no state withholding, a $17.13 minimum among the highest in the US, Washington Paid Leave at 1.13% of wages, WA Cares long-term care, and paid sick leave that accrues from the first hour.
Where Washington gets specific is the leave programmes, the high wage floor, unemployment insurance, and a 2025 state mini-WARN on layoffs. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first Washington hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security at 6.2% each side to $184,500, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. Washington layers its own unemployment tax, the Paid Leave and WA Cares premiums, paid sick leave, and a new mini-WARN on top, all without an income tax to withhold.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the Washington-specific layer, and the guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in Washington?
The Washington-specific cost is unemployment insurance, the Washington Paid Leave premium, and the WA Cares deduction, all on top of the federal pass-through. There's no state income tax to withhold.
Unemployment insurance runs on a $78,200 taxable wage base. There's no single flat new-employer rate: a new employer pays 115% of the average rate for its industry, so the number depends on the work.
State income tax: none, Washington withholds nothing at the state level. Minimum wage: $17.13 an hour, among the highest in the US, with tips paid on top and no tip credit. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, with a 30-minute meal period on shifts over 5 hours.
Unemployment insurance: a $78,200 wage base, with a new employer paying 115% of its industry average rate. Washington Paid Leave: 1.13% of wages total, up to 16 weeks combined. WA Cares: a 0.58% employee deduction for long-term care. Paid sick leave: 1 hour per 40 hours worked. Final pay: at the end of the established pay period, on a discharge or a resignation.
Sources: Washington Employment Security Department, 2026 taxable wage base and Washington L&I minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from the SUTA filing cadence to the Paid Leave registration, the WA Cares remittance, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the Washington tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The Washington guides, one layer at a time
Four Washington guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same Washington source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
Why there's no state income tax, the $78,200 SUTA wage base, the 115%-of-industry new-employer rate, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $17.13 floor among the highest in the US, the 40-hour overtime week, the high exempt-salary threshold, and the mandated meal and rest breaks.
Paid family & sick leave
Washington Paid Leave at 1.13% of wages, up to 16 weeks combined, WA Cares long-term care, paid sick leave at 1 hour per 40, and what federal FMLA adds at 50+ employees.
Termination & at-will exceptions
Washington's at-will baseline and its public-policy exceptions, the end-of-pay-period final-wage rule, and the 2025 state mini-WARN that reaches employers with 50+ staff.
The Washington worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does Washington compare to its neighbours?
Washington carries one of the heaviest benefit stacks on the West Coast with no income tax to pay for it, and each neighbour breaks the pattern somewhere. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Oregon levies a graduated income tax that Washington doesn't, alongside its own Paid Leave Oregon programme. Idaho sets a far lower flat income tax, a lower minimum wage, and runs no state paid-leave programme at all. Washington pairs no income tax with the $17.13 minimum and the 1.13% Paid Leave premium, a heavier benefit stack than either.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the income tax, the leave mandate, and the minimum wage are not.
How does Teamed hire in Washington for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Washington for from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the unemployment registration, the Paid Leave and WA Cares premiums, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Washington hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the Paid Leave premium split and the 2025 mini-WARN trigger. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every state and federal trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A Washington contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Washington hire, until it isn't.
Washington reads as the easy state: no income tax, so the paycheck looks light. The catch is the benefit stack behind it, a top-end minimum wage, Paid Leave at 1.13%, WA Cares, paid sick leave from hour one, and a brand-new mini-WARN on layoffs. These guides exist so the first Washington hire never becomes the first Washington penalty.
Washington looks like a low-cost state to hire in. No income tax, and a paycheck that withholds nothing at the state line.
The cost moved to the benefit side. A 17.13 dollar minimum, Paid Leave, WA Cares, paid sick leave, and a 2025 mini-WARN on layoffs.
Read the right Washington guide before the first hire, not after the first penalty.
