Starting January 1, 2027, the lowest hourly wage a Washington employer may pay a 14- or 15-year-old will be $15.07. The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) posted the figure on its minimum wage page, alongside a new $17.73 hourly minimum for most other workers.

The youth number is a floor, not a pay scale. Employers are allowed to go lower than the adult rate for the youngest teens, but only down to that line, and plenty of teen jobs already pay above it.

How the youth rate is built from the adult rate

L&I describes the youth rate as a share of the adult one. Its page lists minors 14 to 15 years old as paid “no less than 85% of minimum wage.” The arithmetic checks out against the posted figures: 85 percent of $17.73 is about $15.07, which is the number L&I publishes for 2027.

That link matters for anyone trying to guess next year’s youth pay. The teen rate is not set by its own vote or its own formula. It moves whenever the general minimum moves, and it moves by the same proportion.

For a family that counts on a teenager’s paycheck to cover a phone bill, a car insurance add-on or savings for school, the practical question is which side of the line a given job sits on, and whether it will change in January.

The next step in this story is the first January paycheck, and The Retirement Money Brief tracks follow-up updates on wage floors like this one.

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Why the number changes every January

The adult minimum is indexed to inflation. According to L&I, beginning in mid-September each year the department makes a cost-of-living adjustment based on the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, known as CPI-W. The new rate is announced on September 30 and takes effect on the first day of January.

That timetable explains why the figures are already public in early October even though they do not apply to a single paycheck yet. Employers have a little over three months to update payroll settings, and families with a teenager on a part-time schedule have the same window to see what is coming.

One quirk is worth knowing if a reader checks the page directly. The L&I page carries an older “last updated” stamp from July 2024, yet its text states the 2027 rates. The figures in this article were read from the live page on October 6, 2026, so the stamp should not be taken as a sign the numbers are stale.

What “may pay” means for a household budget

The wording of the rule is permissive. It sets the least a covered employer can pay a 14- or 15-year-old, not what the teen is entitled to be offered in every case. A job posted at $16 an hour clears the youth floor. One posted at $15.00 would fall under it by seven cents.

The gap between the two Washington rates is also easy to state. The adult minimum of $17.73 is $2.66 an hour above the $15.07 youth rate. Over a five-hour weekend shift, that difference comes to $13.30 before taxes, which is simple multiplication rather than a projection of what any particular teen will earn.

Parents and teens who want to know what a particular paycheck should look like in 2027 have one dependable method: take the hourly rate on the offer, compare it with $15.07, and confirm the date the new rate begins. Pay stubs that show hours and rate make that comparison simple.

What the L&I page does not cover

The minimum wage page is narrow. It does not lay out work-permit rules or hour limits for 14- and 15-year-olds, and it does not publish a separate rate for 16- and 17-year-olds. Readers looking for those rules would need to consult other parts of the L&I site, and no claim about them is made here.

L&I’s separate youth employment page covers prohibited duties for minors rather than wages, so it does not alter the $15.07 figure.

Checking the rate on a teen’s first 2027 paycheck

The free official route is the Labor and Industries minimum wage page, which states the $15.07 youth rate, the $17.73 general rate and the January 1, 2027 effective date. Check the posted rate on any job offer against that page, and look again after January 1 in case anything is revised.

Gather the offer or schedule, the hourly rate and the first pay stub. The rate times the hours worked should match the gross pay line. A rate below $15.07 for a 14- or 15-year-old after the start date would be a question for L&I, whose figures, set by the CPI-W adjustment announced September 30, are the reference for the whole calculation.

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This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures and dates were checked against the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries minimum wage page linked above.