Seattle-Tacoma wages rose between 2022 and 2023

Wages in the Seattle-Tacoma area received a bump over the past year, beating out the national average.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages and salaries for private industry workers went up by 5.4% between June 2022 and June 2023. At the same time, the United States averaged 4.6%.

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One change in 2023 was that Seattle's minimum wage slightly rose. Starting on January 1, the minimum wage for small employers was $16.50, and $18.69 for large employers. Washington state's minimum wage also rose in 2023 by 8.66% to $15.74 an hour. The raise was tied to inflation and made Washington's minimum wage the highest in the nation (aside from Washington, D.C.).

Also between June 2022 and June 2023, the bureau notes that the compensation cost to employers (wages and benefits) went up by 1.9%. The national average was 4.5%. Since 2019, Seattle area employers have paid an average of 3.1% more each year for employee compensation.

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Seattle appears to have the widest gap in the nation between its rise in wages and the total cost of paying employees. For example, Philadelphia had the largest increase in wages (6.6%) in the nation, but employers' cost of compensation also went up 5.8%.

The bureau includes a range of counties in its definition of the Seattle-Tacoma region, including: Island, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, and Thurston counties.