Except where a higher minimum wage is required by Washington state or federal law:

(1) Every employer shall pay to each employee who has reached their sixteenth or seventeenth year of age a rate of pay per hour which is equal to the hourly rate required by RCW 49.46.020 for employees eighteen years of age or older, whether computed on an hourly, commission, piecework, or other basis, except as may be otherwise provided under this chapter.

(2) Every employer shall pay to each employee who has not reached their sixteenth year of age a rate of pay per hour that is not less than eighty-five percent of the hourly rate required by RCW 49.46.020 for employees eighteen years of age or older, whether computed on an hourly, commission, piecework, or other basis, except as may be otherwise provided under this chapter.

(3) These minimum wage provisions shall not apply when a minor student is in a work place to carry out an occupational training experience assignment directly supervised on the premises by a school official or an employer under contract with a school, and when no appreciable benefit is rendered to the employer by the presence of the minor student.