Under Washington law, it is a criminal violation for an employer to “willfully and with intent to deprive the employee of any part of his wages…” RCW 49.52.050. This law applies to an employer’s failure to pay overtime wages as well. Overtime pay is required to be paid to employees who have worked in excess of 40 hours per one week. According to RCW 49.46.130, the overtime rate is to be calculated at no less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is employed. Exceptions to this rule as stated in the RCW include:

1) Employees who request compensating time off in lieu of overtime pay;

2) Any individual employed as a seaman;

3) Seasonal employees;

4) Any individual employed as a motion picture projectionist if that employee is covered by a contract or collective bargaining agreement;

5) An individual employed as a truck or bus driver who is subject to the provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Act (49 U.S.C. Sec. 3101 et seq. and 49 U.S.C. Sec. 10101 et seq.);

6) Any individual employed:

(i) on a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with the cultivation of the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and furbearing animals and wildlife, or in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment;

(ii) in packing, packaging, grading, storing or delivering to storage, or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, any agricultural or horticultural commodity; or;

(iii) commercial canning, commercial freezing, or any other commercial processing, or with respect to services performed in connection with the cultivation, raising, harvesting, and processing of oysters or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption; Any industry in which federal law provides for an overtime payment based on a workweek other than forty hours

7) Any hours worked by an employee of a carrier by air subject to the provisions of subchapter II of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. Sec. 181 et seq.)

8) Any individual licensed under chapter 18.85 RCW unless the individual is providing real estate brokerage services under a written contract with a real estate firm which provides that the individual is an employee.

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