No. Simply reducing an employee's hours doesn't allow an employer to prorate the exempt salary threshold. The salary threshold applies even to part-time employees, so an employee must still receive the applicable minimum salary to satisfy that part of the exemption test.

Employees making less than the salary threshold will generally be eligible for overtime. 

Generally, an employee who doesn't meet the salary requirement cannot qualify for one of the salary-based executive, administrative or professional exemptions. That means the employer may need to treat the employee as non-exempt and provide applicable overtime and other protections.

Not necessarily. Employers may choose to increase the employee's salary sufficiently to maintain an exemption, if the employee also meets the other exemption requirements, or reclassify the employee as non-exempt and comply with the applicable wage-and-hour requirements.

For Washington's salary threshold, bonuses, commissions and benefits can't be used to make up the difference between an employee's guaranteed salary and the required threshold. The employee's guaranteed salary needs to meet the applicable amount.

Yes, it will increase for large employers only based on any change in the minimum wage for 2028, which will be released in 2027.

Small employers will step up one more time from 2.25x the minimum wage to 2.5x for 2028 and then increase annually only with the minimum wage. 

Yes. Washington has a separate computer-professional exemption. L&I notes that its general salary-threshold schedule does not apply to computer professionals paid by the hour, who are subject to higher minimum-wage multipliers.

Whether an employee qualifies for the computer-professional exemption also depends on the applicable duties requirements