The Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) has been working on new overtime rules that would increase the salary threshold that helps determine whether executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees are exempt from overtime requirements. In October, L&I released a pre-draft proposal that would have increased the threshold to 1.5 – 3 times the state minimum wage. (For more on that version and overtime exemptions in general, see here.)

A new version of the draft, released yesterday, proposes making the threshold 2 – 2.5 times the state minimum wage, beginning Jan. 1, 2020. The minimum wage will be $13.50 in 2020. So if the final rule makes the threshold 2 times the minimum wage, employees making under $56,160 a year would be eligible for overtime. If the final rule makes the threshold 2.5 times the minimum wage, employees earning under $70,200 would be eligible for overtime.

The draft additionally asks stakeholders whether there should be a phase-in period based on employer size and whether there should be a higher threshold in “higher-wage cities, counties, or areas of the state.” (There will be feedback sessions next week, and public comments are due Dec. 14.)

Tying the overtime threshold to the minimum wage and having varying thresholds depending on region would be a significant policy change for Washington. That said, both have been done in other states. For example, California‘s EAP salary threshold is 2 times the state minimum wage. And New York‘s threshold for executive and administrative employees is a set amount that varies for large and small employers in New York City; Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties; and the rest of the state. (Note, though, that New York’s minimum wage also varies along those regional lines.)