Workers came together to achieve some major victories this session. We helped lead a broad coalition of organizations to win $465 million in additional cash relief for undocumented workers. We passed laws expanding the legal tools workers can use to enforce their rights and making sure that more workers have access to free legal help. And we joined the fight to pass the state’s first capital gains tax on extraordinary profits, taking a first step towards taxing the rich and funding a just recovery.
Check out the full recap of What Workers Won in the 2021 WA legislative session — and then rate how you think the legislature did…
Read More“I’d worked as a home health care aide for 20 years, but was injured on the job and had to find work I could do despite my injuries. Accessibility of gig work was important to me, but I soon found myself having to work constantly just to make ends meet.”
Gig workers are calling on the Seattle City Council to make the gig economy Pay Up Now by passing new laws that raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency.
Read More“I don’t earn enough to get by. GrubHub uses some sort of crystal ball method to determine what an order is worth, and I can make as little as a few dollars per order.”
Gig workers are calling on the Seattle City Council to make the gig economy Pay Up Now by passing new laws that raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency.
Read More“I’m homeless because of these apps’ race to the bottom. I did not make enough to even pay for my $600 a month room. And so I am now homeless. This is a serious situation. We need you all to really get on this and get us some permanent changes.”
Gig workers are calling on the Seattle City Council to make the gig economy Pay Up Now by passing new laws that raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency.
Read MoreWe can't afford to wait another year to take action as booming gig companies makes their executives into billionaires while paying as little as $2 a job to the people doing the actual work. Send a message today to Seattle City Council telling them to act now by passing new laws that raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency for gig workers.
Read MoreDuring the state House Labor committee’s recent hearing on the Worker Protection Act (HB 1076)—a bill that would allow whistleblower enforcement of workers’ rights law—big business lobbyists were there to testify in opposition, just like they do every time there’s a Good Thing for Workers on the docket. Recently, they’ve also opposed higher wages, sick days, and basically every other worker protection currently on the books.
And gosh, these biz lobbyists sure were in extra special business lobbyist form during the hearing…
Read MoreIt has now been more than a month since the last time ESD reported wait times and other similar claims processing data— the department's last report covered data through the week ending December 26, 2020. Key data has not been updated since then. Instead the department's data reporting dashboard simply says "thank you for your patience."
Read MoreJust three weeks into the legislative session, state leaders have scrambled with extraordinary speed and waived standard procedure in order to give out immediate unemployment tax breaks to businesses, while failing to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers who have struggled with devastating delays, unfair denials, and overpayment collections.
Read MoreCongress is considering legislation to set a $15 federal minimum wage, a long-overdue move that as part of a broader COVID relief effort will be an important way to ensure greater economic security for millions of workers across the country, protect public health during this crisis, and support a just recovery going forward.
Cue the Chicken Little predictions from business lobbyists, who are already trotting out their same-old arguments against being required to pay workers more money for the first time in over a decade. But workers in Seattle and SeaTac know from experience that the sky didn’t fall after they won the first $15 laws in the country in 2013 and 2014—and they know it won’t fall in 2021, either.
So here’s a quick refresher about the history of the fight for $15 and what a higher federal minimum wage will mean for workers across the country during this crisis and beyond…
Read MoreWorking Washington and Fair Work Center support SB 5061, the unemployment reform proposal sponsored by Sens. Keiser and Conway which would raise the minimum weekly benefit, reduce employer unemployment taxes, and make other changes to a state unemployment system which has failed to do its job of paying benefits promptly to those who lose work. We also urge legislators to expand the bill to do more to support workers in need.
However, while the current draft of SB 5061 does take some useful steps to improve the system for workers, the current draft does not address the single most important issue workers have faced: it fails to do what is necessary to give workers confidence they will receive benefits promptly when they lose work.
While the current draft of SB 5061 does take some useful steps to improve the system for workers, the current draft does not address the single most important issue workers have faced: it fails to do what is necessary to give workers confidence they will receive benefits promptly when they lose work. Here’s what needs to change to better support workers in need:
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