Washington labor will push major worker-friendly reforms in 2025

Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) and its affiliated unions will be promoting an ambitious agenda in the 2025 legislative session that began Jan. 13. With a new union-backed governor and Democratic supermajorities in the state house and senate, union leaders are hopeful they’ll pass some of it before lawmakers adjourn April 27.

Here are some of the highest priority union-backed proposals that allied legislators will be pushing:

• Unemployment benefits for striking workers  A bill to make strikers eligible for unemployment benefits after two weeks on strike passed the state house last year, but didn’t have enough support to move forward in the senate. Democrats picked up one seat in each chamber in the November 2024 elections, and there’s some hope that newer legislators will be more pro-worker.
• Stronger child labor protections  In 2023, a horrific workplace accident in Southwest Washington cost a 16-year-old boy both legs. Investigators found that Rotschy, his non-union employer, had already committed dozens of child labor law violations and yet was still allowed to participate in a school-sponsored work experience program and get exemptions from some labor standards. In light of all that, lawmakers are looking to increase penalties for companies that violate child labor standards and strengthen oversight by the Washington Division of Labor and Industries.
• Raising the minimum wage — and mandating paid vacation Workers all over Europe get a minimum of four weeks a year of paid vacation. Could the state of Washington set a standard of three weeks (15 days) a year? The state’s unions are going to try, and may seek to pair that proposal with a further increase in the state minimum wage. Washington’s minimum wage is currently $16.66 an hour, the highest in the country, and it rises every January according to inflation. But there’s concern that the inflation index isn’t capturing the extraordinary increases in the cost of housing. Advocates are going to ask that it be raised to $25 an hour, phased in over the coming years. 
• Speeding up clean energy transmission lines  Under a 2019 law, Washington’s official goal is for an electric grid completely free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. But getting there will require more than just a big increase in renewable power generation. It will also require big upgrades in electricity transmission. At the urging of IBEW and the state building trades, lawmakers are looking at how to remove planning obstacles and speed up permitting for transmission lines. 

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