2025 legislative review
to 25, and further lower to 15 beginning in 2027 and finally to 8 + employees beginning in 2028. Employers must maintain health insurance coverage for workers while on leave. Additionally, the minimum claim amount is reduced from 8 hours to 4 hours. For large employers, there is one silver lining: employees will now be prohibited from“ stacking” their federal FMLA and state PFML benefits. Those benefits must now be taken concurrently, beginning January 1, 2026.
SB 5292 paid family medical leave rates
Failed / AWB Opposed sponsor: Sen. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma
This bill would have done two things:( 1) move the state’ s rate setting for Paid
Family and Medical Leave( PFML) from a backwards-looking historical rate model to a forward-looking actuarial rate model; and( 2) removed the current 1.2 % rate cap. AWB opposed the removal of the rate cap, since this could lead to unpredictable and rapidly increasing PFML rates. We do anticipate that this legislation will return in 2026, since we are projected to have PFML rates at / near the 1.2 % cap by 2027.
HB 1308 personnel records
Passed / AWB Opposed sponsor: Rep. Julia Reed, D-Seattle
While we were successful in narrowing this bill, the personnel records bill did pass in 2025. As passed, the bill requires employers to provide an employee with a copy of their personnel records within 21 days of receiving the request for the records.
The personnel file includes the following: all job application records, performance evaluations, disciplinary records, accommodation records, payroll records, and employment agreements. Employers are not required to create records, but rather are required to produce them only if they create these records. Critically, there is a new private right of action created in the bill that allows employees to file suit against their employer for failure to comply with the law.
SB 5041 unemployment insurance for striking workers
Passed / AWB Opposed sponsor: Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane
AWB strongly opposed expansion of the use of unemployment insurance benefits to workers that have a job to return to. Unfortunately, the bill passed this year, and will allow striking workers to collect up to 6 weeks of unemployment benefits beginning the second Sunday after the first day of the strike.
SB 5408 corrections to wage and salary disclosures
Passed / AWB Supported sponsor: Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima
Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, is chair of the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee. Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, is the ranking minority member of both the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee.
The one highlight of the session was the passage of SB 5408. In the 18 months following the enactment of the wage transparency requirement in Washington’ s Equal Pay and Opportunity Act, employers were facing almost a half-a-billion dollars in legal liability stemming from a small number of plaintiffs firms that turned the law into a cottage industry. As passed, the bill does three things:( 1) first, the bill protects employers from all liability from the content of third party website postings where the employer did not consent to the
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