State's minimum wage will increase to $9.19 next year

Washington's minimum wage will increase to $9.19 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2013, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) announced today.

L&I calculates the state's minimum wage each year as required by Initiative 688, approved by Washington voters in 1998. The 15-cent-per-hour increase, from $9.04 to $9.19 an hour, reflects a 1.67 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index (for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, CPI-W) announced earlier this month by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The CPI-W measures average price changes for goods and services purchased by urban wag...