From staff reports:

Washington state’s minimum wage will increase to $9.04 an hour on Jan. 1, 2012, a 37-cent increase from the current rate of $8.67. Both the current rate and new rate means the state’s minimum wage is the highest in the country, with the federal minimum wage rate set at $7.25.

Recently, San Francisco made headlines with an increase in its city-mandated minimum wage, with workers in that city set to make $10.24 an hour. That $10.24 figure is the first minimum wage to bump over $10 an hour.

The state’s minimum wage is required by law to be recalculated each year, in order to adjust for inflation. The state looks at the Consumer Price Index in determining the new figure. In 2011, that figure from the CPI increased four percent. The yearly adjustment is required by Initiative 688, a voter-approved initiative enacted in 1998.