2025 Legal Updates That Every Washington Employer Should Know

By Amy Kangas Alexander and Krista Slosburg | Related Practice: Employment

It was a busy legislative session for employment law in Washington State. A series of recently passed laws will impact Washington employers in the coming months. Below, we summarize what Washington employers need to know, when the changes take effect, and how they might affect your business. We recommend that employers develop a plan to update their policies and procedures this year.

Changes taking effect on July 27, 2025:

• Expanded rights to personnel files. For the first time, Washington defines the records that must be included in a personnel file and imposes penalties for employers who fail to comply with their obligations to disclose employees’ personnel files upon request. Read more here and prepare to update your recordkeeping practices.
• Salary disclosures in job postings. We previously discussed the changes to Washington’s pay transparency laws here. All companies hiring in Washington should review these amendments to job posting requirements.
• Washington gets its own mini-WARN Act. Employers grappling with mass layoffs or a business closure must review new state requirements, which provide greater employee protections than the federal WARN Act. We summarize the new requirements here.
• Expanded uses for sick leave. Employees will be able to use sick leave to prepare for or participate in any judicial or administrative immigration proceeding involving the employee or employee's family member.
• Unemployment insurance for striking workers.
  • Workers participating in strikes may now collect unemployment insurance benefits.
  • Workers are eligible for benefits on the second Sunday following the first day of the strike but are then subject to a one-week waiting period. That means workers are entitled to benefits 15 to 21 days after the strike begins, provided the strike remains in effect.
  • Benefits also extend to workers affected by employer-initiated lockouts after the one-week waiting period.
  • Following the waiting period, striking employees may receive a maximum of six weeks of unemployment compensation.
  • Employers can expect their unemployment insurance rates to increase if striking employees qualify for and receive unemployment compensation.

Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Expansion:
Most Washington employers must soon extend job protection to employees who take Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave. Changes start to take effect on January 1, 2026, and will be gradually phased in until January 1, 2028, depending on an employer’s size. Read here about all of Washington PFML’s new employee rights and employer notice obligations and make a plan for updating your leave policies and procedures.

Hate Crime Protections:

• Beginning on January 1, 2026, Washington’s Domestic Violence Leave Law will also cover victims of a hate crime. Hate crimes are defined as the commission, attempted commission, or alleged commission of an assault, physical damage or destruction of another’s property, or threats to a specific person or group of persons and that places that person or members of the group in reasonable fear of harm to person or property. The acts must be taken because of their perception of another person’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or mental, physical, or sensory disability.
• Given that employees are permitted to use sick leave if they are absent from work for reasons that qualify under the state’s Domestic Violence Leave Act, the law will have the effect of expanding permissible uses of sick leave.
• Employers should review and update their existing domestic violence leave, sick leave, and accommodations policies to ensure compliance.

Criminal Background Checks.
Beginning on July 27, 2026, employers will be more limited in how they can consider the criminal records of not only job applicants, but also existing employees. We summarize the changes to the Fair Chance Act here.

Expanded pregnancy-related accommodations.
Starting January 1, 2027, employers of all sizes will need to provide paid lactation breaks and other pregnancy-related job accommodations. Read more here. 

If you have questions about any of these updates or would like to discuss your company's policies and procedures, please contact a member of our employment team.