OLYMPIA — Washington’s minimum wage will not increase next year, and the state will no longer have the highest statewide minimum wage as of January.
State officials announced that the current minimum wage of $9.47 an hour will not increase because inflation, as measured by the national Consumer Price Index, did not increase over the past year. That index decreased 0.3 percent.
It’s only the second time that there has not been an increase in the state since voters approved an initiative in 1998 to adjust the minimum wage based on inflation. Under that law, the minimum wage can’t be decreased. The last time the minimum wage was not increased was in 2010.
Washington will no longer have the highest minimum wage in the country as of Jan. 1, when California and Massachusetts will reach $10 per hour.
