In any action in which any person is successful in recovering judgment for wages or salary owed to him or her, reasonable attorney's fees, in an amount to be determined by the court, shall be assessed against said employer or former employer: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That this section shall not apply if the amount of recovery is less than or equal to the amount admitted by the employer to be owing for said wages or salary.
RCW 49.48.030
Attorney's fee in action on wages—Exception.
Applied in 174 court decisions — leading case 117 Wash. 2d 426 - Gaglidari v. Denny's Restaurants, Inc. (1991)
Most recently applied in Dep't of Lab. & Indus. v. Cannabis Green, LLC (May 2025)
2010 c 8 s 12048; 1971 ex.s. c 55 s 3; 1888 c 128 s 3; RRS s 7596.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.