Exempt salary threshold 2026: minimum salary for exempt employees by state
The federal exempt salary threshold for 2026 is $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, unchanged since 2020. Six states require more: Washington ($1,541.70 a week), California ($1,352.00), New York ($1,275.00 or $1,199.10 by county), Alaska ($1,120.00), Colorado ($1,111.23) and Maine ($871.16). You owe whichever figure is higher where the employee works.
Every number on this page is sourced to the regulation or the state agency that publishes it, and the source is named in the table. Below that: what happened to the 2024 federal rule, the separate rates for computer professionals and highly compensated employees, and how the threshold sets a hard floor under the bottom of your salary bands. Price a role on the right while you read.
Last updated August 2026
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- P50 · Median
- $0
- P75
- $0
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2026 exempt salary thresholds, federal and by state
These are the minimum salaries an executive, administrative or professional employee must receive on a salary basis to stay exempt from overtime. Sorted highest first, because the highest applicable figure is the one that binds you. Every state not listed defaults to the federal rate.
| Jurisdiction | Per week | Per year | How it is set | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | $1,541.70 | $80,168.40 | 2.25 times the state minimum wage of $17.13, same rate for every employer size | Jan 1, 2026 |
| California | $1,352.00 | $70,304.00 | Twice the $16.90 state minimum wage times 2,080 hours | Jan 1, 2026 |
| New York (NYC, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester) | $1,275.00 | $66,300.00 | State wage orders. Applies to the executive and administrative exemptions only | Jan 1, 2026 |
| New York (rest of state) | $1,199.10 | $62,353.20 | State wage orders. Applies to the executive and administrative exemptions only | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Alaska | $1,120.00 | $58,240.00 | Twice the $14.00 state minimum wage times 40 hours, under AS 23.10.055(b) | July 1, 2026 |
| Colorado | $1,111.23 | $57,784.00 | COMPS Order #40 with the 2026 PAY CALC Order, adjusted by CPI rather than a wage multiple | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Maine | $871.16 | $45,300.32 | 3,000 times the $15.10 state minimum wage, or the federal annual rate if that is higher | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Federal (FLSA), all other states | $684.00 | $35,568.00 | 29 CFR 541.600(a), the 2019 rule, unchanged since January 1, 2020 | In force |
Sources: 29 CFR 541.600 for the federal figure, Washington Labor and Industries, the California Department of Industrial Relations minimum wage of $16.90 applied under Labor Code 515(a), the New York State wage orders, Alaska Statute 23.10.055(b), Colorado COMPS Order #40 with the 2026 PAY CALC Order, and the Maine Department of Labor announcement of the $15.10 minimum wage.
Why the federal number did not move, and why that surprised people
A lot of employers still budget against a threshold that never took effect. In April 2024 the Department of Labor finalized a rule raising the salary level to $844 a week that July and $1,128 a week on January 1, 2025, with the highly compensated employee level going to $151,164. Companies restructured pay around it.
On November 15, 2024 a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas vacated that rule nationwide, and the level snapped back to $684. For about eighteen months the regulation on the books and the law as courts applied it said different things, which is why so much published guidance from that period is wrong.
On May 15, 2026 the Department of Labor closed the gap. It published a final rule, effective immediately, described in its own abstract as implementing "the judgments of federal courts vacating the Department's 2024 final rule" by "removing from the Code of Federal Regulations the regulatory text from the now-vacated 2024 rule and republishing in its place the regulatory text as it existed prior to the effective date of that rule."
So 29 CFR 541.600(a) now reads $684 per week, plainly, with no litigation footnote. There is no scheduled federal increase and no automatic indexing. If it changes again it will take a fresh rulemaking, which means notice, comment and a long runway.
Timeline
- Jan 1, 2020
- The 2019 rule sets $684 a week and a $107,432 highly compensated level.
- Apr 2024
- DOL finalizes a rule stepping to $844, then $1,128 a week.
- Nov 15, 2024
- A federal court vacates the 2024 rule nationwide. The level returns to $684.
- May 15, 2026
- DOL publishes a technical amendment restoring the pre-2024 text in the CFR, effective the same day.
- Today
- $684 a week federally, with six states above it and no federal increase scheduled.
The rates that are not $684, and the roles with no salary test at all
The standard threshold is not the whole regulation. Three groups sit outside it, and each one catches somebody every year.
| Category | 2026 rate | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Highly compensated employee, federal | $107,432 a year | 29 CFR 541.601. Must include at least $684 a week paid on a salary or fee basis. Bonuses and commissions can make up the rest. |
| Highly compensated employee, Colorado | $130,014 a year | 2026 PAY CALC Order. Colorado is the only state that publishes its own highly compensated figure. |
| Computer employees, federal hourly option | $27.63 an hour | 29 CFR 541.600(d). Lets a qualifying computer employee stay exempt while paid hourly instead of salaried. |
| Computer professionals, Washington | $59.96 an hour | Washington Labor and Industries, 2026. The alternative to the $1,541.70 weekly salary. |
| Computer software employees, California | $58.85 an hour | California DIR, effective January 1, 2026. Also expressible as $10,214.44 a month or $122,573.13 a year. |
| Teachers, practicing lawyers and physicians | No salary test | 29 CFR 541.600(e). Also covers medical interns and residents. Explicitly does not cover pharmacists, nurses, therapists, technologists, dietitians, social workers or psychologists. |
| Outside sales employees | No salary test | 29 CFR 541.500. The exemption turns entirely on duties and on customarily working away from the employer's place of business. |
The nurse row is worth reading twice. Hospitals and clinics routinely assume the medical exception covers clinical staff generally, and the regulation says the opposite in a list of named professions. A registered nurse paid a salary below the applicable threshold is non-exempt.
Four rules that decide which number you owe
Rule 01
Work location governs, not headquarters
The threshold follows the state where the employee physically performs the work. A company registered in Delaware with a team spread across four states owes four different numbers. This is the failure mode we see most often at companies that went remote without revisiting anything, and it is worth auditing the moment somebody relocates. Our guide to geographic pay differentials covers how to price the same role across markets once you know the floors.
Rule 02
Salary is necessary, never sufficient
Clearing the threshold does not make anyone exempt. The duties test does that, and it asks what the person actually spends the week doing, not what the job title says. A coordinator paid $90,000 with no discretion over matters of significance is non-exempt at $90,000. Paying more never fixes a duties problem.
Rule 03
Part-time gets no discount
The weekly salary requirement is not prorated for a reduced schedule. Somebody working three days a week in an exempt role still needs the full weekly figure. If that is not the deal you want, classify the role as non-exempt and pay overtime past 40 hours. Both are legitimate. Half a salary for half a week is not.
Rule 04
Alaska moves in July, everyone else in January
Alaska's threshold is tied to a minimum wage that steps up on July 1, so it went from $1,040 to $1,120 a week in the middle of 2026 and is scheduled to move again on July 1, 2027 when the state minimum wage reaches $15.00. If you have Alaska employees, the compliance calendar has two dates on it, not one.
The threshold is the floor under your salary bands
Most compliance write-ups stop at the number. The operational question is what it does to your pay structure, and the answer is specific: for any role you classify as exempt, the bottom of the band has to clear the applicable threshold. Not the midpoint. The minimum, because that is what a newly hired or newly promoted person can actually be paid.
That constraint bites hardest at the entry end. Take a coordinator role you want exempt, benchmarked at a $52,000 median, with a typical band running from about 80 percent of the midpoint to about 120 percent. The band minimum lands near $41,600. That clears the federal $35,568 comfortably. Put the same person in Denver and the Colorado floor of $57,784 is above your entire band, midpoint included. The role cannot be exempt in Colorado at that market rate, and no amount of band design changes it.
When the floor cuts through a band you have three honest options: raise the band minimum to the threshold and accept the compression against the level above, classify the role as non-exempt in that state and budget for overtime, or split the band by geography. All three are defensible. Picking one by accident is not, and it tends to surface later as pay compression nobody planned.
This is the same discipline a posted-range law asks for, which is convenient. Once you can show where a band came from, you can defend both the classification and the range you put in the job ad. Our walkthrough of how wide a salary range should be and the difference between pay grades and salary bands both cover the mechanics.
A four-step check
- 01 · List exempt roles by work state. One line per person, with the state they work from, not the state on the offer letter.
- 02 · Attach the applicable floor. Higher of federal and state, using the table above. Note the New York carve-out for professionals.
- 03 · Compare against the band minimum. Not current pay. The minimum, because that is what the next hire into the band can be offered.
- 04 · Re-run the duties test where it is close. Any role sitting within a few thousand dollars of its floor deserves a real duties review, not a title check.
Three details that are easy to get wrong
New York's threshold does not cover professionals
The $1,275.00 and $1,199.10 weekly figures come from state wage orders that reach the executive and administrative exemptions. New York never set a state salary threshold for the professional exemption, so a qualifying professional in New York falls back to the federal $684 a week. That is a genuine $600 a week gap between two employees in the same office, and it is the detail most multi-state summaries flatten out.
Washington no longer splits by employer size
For several years Washington ran two rates, a lower one for employers with 50 or fewer employees. For 2026 both categories sit at 2.25 times the minimum wage, which is $1,541.70 a week for everyone. A small employer relying on an old cheat sheet is now short by a meaningful amount, in the state with the most aggressive wage enforcement posture in the country.
Consent does not create an exemption
An employee cannot agree to be exempt below the threshold, and a signed acknowledgment is worth nothing. FLSA rights are not waivable by private agreement. If the classification is wrong, the exposure is unpaid overtime going back two years, three if the violation is willful, plus liquidated damages that typically double it. The math punishes optimism.
The other pay rules that apply to the same roles
Classification is one of two compliance jobs a growing company gets handed at the same time. The other is the posted salary range, which now applies in more than a dozen states and asks you to publish the band you just built.
Pay transparency by state
Which states require a posted range, the employee thresholds and the penalties.
Salary bands
How to build a band with a minimum, midpoint and maximum you can defend.
Salary structure
Grades, spread and overlap across the whole company, not one role at a time.
Job posting salary ranges
What a good-faith range has to contain before it goes in the ad.
Exempt salary threshold questions employers actually ask
What is the exempt salary threshold for 2026?
The federal exempt salary threshold for 2026 is $684 per week, which is $35,568 a year, under 29 CFR 541.600(a). Six states require more: Washington at $1,541.70 a week, California at $1,352.00, New York at $1,275.00 or $1,199.10 depending on county, Alaska at $1,120.00, Colorado at $1,111.23 and Maine at $871.16. The higher figure always wins.
What is the minimum salary for exempt employees in 2026?
For an executive, administrative or professional employee, the minimum is the higher of the federal $684 a week and the threshold in the state where the employee actually works. In California that is $70,304 a year, in Washington $80,168.40, and in a state with no separate rule it is $35,568. Salary is only one of the two tests. The duties test still has to be met.
Did the federal overtime salary threshold increase in 2026?
No. The 2024 rule that would have raised it to $1,128 a week was vacated nationwide by a federal court in November 2024, and the threshold reverted to $684. On May 15, 2026, the Department of Labor published a technical amendment removing the vacated text from the Code of Federal Regulations and republishing the pre-2024 text, so $684 is now what the regulation actually says.
Which states have a higher exempt salary threshold than federal law?
Six: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, New York and Washington. Every other state defaults to the federal $684 a week. Colorado also sets its own highly compensated employee threshold at $130,014, above the federal $107,432, and California and Washington publish separate rates for computer professionals.
What happens if you pay an exempt employee less than the salary threshold?
The exemption fails and the employee is owed overtime for every hour over 40 in a workweek, usually going back two years, or three if the violation is willful. The FLSA adds liquidated damages equal to the back pay, so the realistic exposure is roughly double. Job title, a signed agreement and the employee consenting make no difference.
Which state threshold applies to a remote employee?
The threshold of the state where the employee performs the work, not where your company is headquartered or incorporated. A Delaware company with one employee working from Seattle owes that person the Washington threshold of $1,541.70 a week. This is the single most common error at small companies that hired remotely without changing anything else.
Does the salary threshold apply to part-time exempt employees?
Yes, and it is not prorated. A half-time exempt employee still has to receive the full weekly salary. If you want to pay half a salary for half the hours, the role is non-exempt and gets overtime past 40 hours. There is no part-time discount on the salary basis test.
Are doctors, lawyers and teachers subject to the exempt salary threshold?
No. Under 29 CFR 541.600(e) the salary requirement does not apply to teachers, to licensed lawyers and physicians actually practicing, or to medical interns and residents. The regulation is explicit that the exception does not extend to pharmacists, nurses, therapists, technologists, dietitians, social workers or psychologists, who all need the salary.
Can computer employees be paid hourly and stay exempt?
Under federal law yes, at $27.63 an hour or more, per 29 CFR 541.600(d). State rules are stricter where they exist. Washington sets the hourly computer professional rate at $59.96 for 2026, and California sets its computer software employee exemption at $58.85 an hour, $10,214.44 a month or $122,573.13 a year.
Will the exempt salary threshold go up in 2027?
The federal figure has no scheduled increase and any change would need a new rulemaking. State figures are close to automatic: California, Alaska, Colorado, Maine and Washington all recalculate every year from minimum wage or CPI, and Alaska is already scheduled to reach a $15.00 minimum wage on July 1, 2027, which would lift its threshold to $1,200 a week.
This page is general information about published wage regulations, not legal advice. Thresholds change every January, and Alaska changes in July. Confirm the current figure with the relevant agency before you reclassify anyone.
Early access
Check your band minimums against the floor
Wagelist builds a benchmarked band for a role in a specific US market from public federal wage data, with the source and the adjustment written down, so you can see immediately whether the bottom of the band clears the exempt threshold in the state that person works from. Pricing starts at $99 a month with no annual contract and is published on the pricing page. If you are still comparing data sources, the salary survey providers comparison covers what the alternatives cost.