Washington does not license contractors so much as register and bond them, and in July 2024 Labor & Industries tripled the bond after two decades: $30,000 for general contractors, $15,000 for specialty. The part nobody mentions is how you reach it. A bond is not an insurance claim you file, it is a fund you sue into: you need a court judgment first, and it only exists at all if the contractor was registered.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Auto repair shop labor rateWashington average | $152 per hour |
| Attorney hourly rateWashington average | $288 per hour |
| Full traditional dentureWashington average | $2,259 per arch |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
On 1 July 2024 the contractor bond requirement rose for the first time since 2001. General contractors went from $12,000 to $30,000, specialty contractors from $6,000 to $15,000. The increase phases in over about two years as individual registrations renew, so a contractor registered before that date may still be carrying the old amount until their renewal comes round.
L&I was direct about why: some customers have paid tens of thousands of dollars for shoddy work, or no work at all, yet could only get back a fraction of what they had paid.
First, the bond protections only apply if you hire a registered contractor. An unregistered contractor has no bond, which means the thing you would have claimed against does not exist.
Second, a bond is not a claims desk. Collecting requires you to file a lawsuit and obtain a court judgment, and the bond is shared among everyone with a claim against that contractor. It is a backstop worth having and a poor substitute for hiring carefully in the first place.
Washington sits above the national figure on everything tracked here, with auto repair labor among the higher states and dentures among the highest state averages in the country. The table above carries the current numbers with the month each was checked.
All three are labor or appliance figures. Parts, filing fees, extractions and imaging sit outside them.
For home work, verify the contractor registration with L&I before you pay anything, and check the bond amount while you are there. A contractor still on the old $12,000 or $6,000 bond is not doing anything wrong, but it is worth knowing what is actually behind the work.
Ask for the registration number and put it in the contract along with the scope and payment schedule. Everything downstream, including any bond claim, runs on that paperwork.
On the trades this directory lists most heavily here, ask what the rate excludes. Washington shops are near the top of the national labor range, and on a several-hour job a few dollars an hour matters before parts.
For dental work, ask for the treatment plan itemized before booking. With the state average among the highest in the country, and with extractions, imaging, exam and anaesthesia all quoted separately, the first number you hear is rarely the whole number.
Since 1 July 2024, $30,000 for general contractors and $15,000 for specialty contractors, up from $12,000 and $6,000. It was the first increase since 2001 and it phases in as individual registrations renew, so a contractor registered before that date may still carry the old amount.
Not the way most people expect. A bond is not a claims desk: you have to file a lawsuit and obtain a court judgment, and the bond is shared among everyone with a claim against that contractor. It also only exists if the contractor was registered, which is why checking registration before you hire matters more than knowing the bond amount.
About $152 an hour on the state average against a national figure of about $132, which puts Washington among the higher states. That covers diagnostic and repair labor only; parts, shop supplies and disposal fees are separate.
No. Verified here means one specific thing: someone at the business replied to an email we sent to the address on the listing. A business can be listed, accurate and perfectly good without having replied yet, and the listing says which it is.