2025 legislative review
Labor and Employment Law
Lindsey Hueer: Government Affairs Director, Legal Affairs, Labor & Employment Law
The 2025 legislative session brought significant and challenging developments in employment law, reflecting the state’ s continued trend of increasing regulatory burdens and adopting costly new employee protections. Lawmakers passed a range of measures addressing unemployment insurance for striking workers, expansion of paid family and medical leave, personnel records, and others.
As with many other policy areas, the good news is that AWB successfully stopped a multitude of bills that would have devastated Washington’ s economy. This includes a bill that would have increased the state’ s minimum wage to $ 25 per hour and mandated three weeks of paid vacation leave for every employee. Another bill we successfully opposed would have created the structure for Washington to begin unionizing historically dispersed small employers, including the child care sector.
Lindsey Hueer was AWB’ s lead on labor and employment law during the 2025 legislative session.
Thankfully, this year was not all bad news. AWB strongly advocated for the passage of a bill amending the state’ s Equal Pay and Opportunity Act to ensure employers are not held liable for the content of job postings on third-party websites that the employer cannot control, and that employers have the opportunity to amend job postings. AWB supports equal pay and wage transparency, but onerous regulations led to massive litigation liability that far exceeded the intent of the law. While this bill is not a perfect solution, it is a meaningful step in the right direction providing relief to Washington’ s businesses that are acting in good faith and doing everything possible to comply with the law.
As we look ahead to the 2026 legislative session, there is already considerable work being done. AWB is involved in rulemaking for the first set of ergonomics rules promulgated by the Department of Labor and Industries. This first rulemaking process will undoubtedly set the expectations for future industry rulemaking to come. Additionally, we anticipate that 2026 will be another year of continued attack on employers. This includes a return of the minimum wage and paid vacation bill, a mandate to keep injured workers on health insurance or provide them with an alternative financial benefit, a ban on non-compete agreements, an increase in paid family medical leave premium rates, and others. AWB is actively involved in preparing for these bills, as well as continuing our advocacy in the courts on related employment law matters.
For employers, staying informed and compliant is essential to mitigate legal risk and maintain compliant workplace practices. Critically, too, for our multi-state members, these legislative changes not only impact employers in Washington state, but also signal broader trends that may influence employment law nationwide. This overview highlights key employment related bills from this session and examines their implications for Washington’ s business community moving forward.
SB 5437 / HB 1155 non-compete agreements
Failed / AWB Opposed
sponsors: Sen. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell; Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle
These bills would have prohibited all noncompetition agreements, including making existing noncompetition agreements void and unenforceable. The use of noncompetition agreements is already limited in Washington state and provides adequate protection for those entering into these agreements. Use of noncompetition agreements is a vital tool for Washington employers to retain their executive workforce and protect both their intellectual capital and investments made in their workforce.
8 association of washington business