Seattle workers will see a bump in pay in 2027 as the city’s minimum wage climbs to $22.14 per hour effective January 1st, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards announced this week.
The upcoming adjustment represents an increase of 84 cents — roughly 3.9% — over the 2026 baseline rate of $21.30 per hour. As mandated by Seattle’s landmark 2014 Minimum Wage Ordinance, the yearly adjustments are pegged to regional inflation, calculated using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers across the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area.
The $22.14 standard applies equally across all employers regardless of company size. Following the 2025 sunset of the temporary tip-and-benefit credit once granted to small businesses, Seattle maintains a unified wage floor for large and small employers alike.
In 2026, the wage made a 2.6% jump.
The annual setting of the inflation-pegged wage change more than a decade since Seattle established the “$15 Now” minimum wage in the city.
The movement began with calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage. It took Seattle seven years to get there.
Unanimously approved by the Seattle City Council in 2014, Chapter 14.19 required businesses in Seattle to incrementally raise their minimum wage each year until reaching $15 per hour over seven years. At the beginning of 2021, Seattle’s minimum wage increased to $16.69 per hour for large employers with more than 500 employees and small businesses with less than 500 employees finally reached the $15 an hour mark.
District 3 Councilmember Kshama Sawant held the minimum wage victory as the core accomplishment in her decade on the city council.
In 2024, efforts to roll back some of the $15 Now changes met with stiff opposition as current District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth backed off a proposal to permanently extend a tip credit put in place ten years ago to protect the city’s small businesses during the phase-in of the higher minimum wage tied to inflation.
OLS said it will distribute updated workplace posters detailing the 2027 labor requirements in the coming weeks.
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