Non-Competes in Washington State: Income Thresholds and New Rules

Washington state is home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a large concentration of tech talent in the Seattle and Eastside markets. It's also home to one of the more specific and employee-protective non-compete statutes in the country, passed in 2020 and now fully in effect. If you're in the Seattle area tech market, this law has direct consequences for your employment agreement.

Washington's 2020 Non-Compete Law

RCW 49.62 — the Washington Noncompetition Covenants statute — took effect January 1, 2020. It created a comprehensive set of requirements for non-compete enforceability that represent a significant departure from the prior common-law reasonableness standard.

The core principle: Washington still allows non-competes, but only within a specific framework. Outside that framework, a non-compete is void and unenforceable. Critically, the statute makes it a violation for employers to even attempt to enforce a void non-compete, with attorney fees and a $5,000 penalty payable to the employee.

The Income Thresholds

Washington's statute creates two income thresholds for non-compete enforceability:

• Employees: A non-compete is only enforceable if the employee earns above a threshold that was initially set at approximately $100,000 annually and is adjusted each year for inflation.
• Independent contractors: The threshold for independent contractors is approximately $250,000 annually.

If your compensation is below the applicable threshold, your non-compete is void — period. The employer cannot enforce it, and attempting to do so exposes them to the statutory penalty.

The thresholds are adjusted annually, so the specific number that applies to your situation depends on when you were hired. Checking the current figure (published by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries) against your compensation is a straightforward first step in assessing enforceability.

18-Month Cap on Duration

Washington's statute creates a rebuttable presumption that non-compete restrictions exceeding 18 months are unreasonable. A non-compete longer than 18 months is presumed unenforceable — an employer can rebut that presumption, but the burden shifts to them to justify the extended restriction.

In practice, non-competes at most Washington employers are drafted to be 18 months or shorter. If you see a non-compete longer than 18 months in a Washington employment agreement, that's worth flagging.

Garden Leave Requirements

For non-competes that would otherwise meet the income threshold and duration requirements, Washington's statute requires something more for agreements exceeding 18 months: the employer must pay the employee during the non-compete period at a rate not less than their base salary at the time of departure (sometimes called "garden leave").

This garden leave requirement effectively means: if you want an 18-month non-compete in Washington, you're paying the employee for those 18 months. For most employers, this economic reality limits how broadly they're willing to draft non-compete restrictions.

For non-competes of 18 months or less, the garden leave requirement does not apply as a statutory mandate — though courts may consider the lack of compensation during the restriction period as a factor in the hardship analysis.

Disclosure Timing: Before the Offer Acceptance

This is a frequently overlooked requirement with significant consequences. Washington's statute requires that the non-compete agreement be disclosed to prospective employees before acceptance of an employment offer.

If you received the non-compete after you accepted the offer letter — for example, as part of a day-one onboarding package that appeared two weeks after you signed your offer — the non-compete may be unenforceable for failure to comply with the advance disclosure requirement.

Keep records of when you received each document. If you're in a current situation where you received the non-compete after offer acceptance, that timing issue is potentially significant.

What Amazon and Microsoft Employees Should Know

Amazon and Microsoft are the two largest employers of tech workers in Washington state, and their employment agreements have generally included non-compete provisions.

For employees above the income threshold, with agreements properly disclosed before offer acceptance, and with restrictions within 18 months: the non-competes may be enforceable. The scope of the restriction — how broadly it defines prohibited activity — remains subject to a reasonableness analysis even when the statutory requirements are met.

For employees who were presented with non-competes after they accepted their offer letter, the timing issue is worth investigating. The statute's disclosure timing requirement is a specific and checkable fact.

The income threshold creates a clear category of employees whose non-competes are simply void. If you're at the lower end of compensation at either company, checking your salary against the current threshold is worthwhile.

The Bottom Line

Washington's non-compete statute creates clear, checkable requirements — income threshold, duration cap, disclosure timing. If you're in the Seattle tech market and want to know whether your non-compete actually holds up, paste your employment agreement into dott.legal for a free AI risk analysis. For situations where you're weighing a career move to a competitor or have received an enforcement threat, attorney-validated review is $349 with 24-hour turnaround.