Labor & Workplace Standards Committee advances nine bills including childcare workforce board and expanded paid-leave protections

The Labor & Workplace Standards Committee on Feb. 7, 2025, reported nine House bills out of committee with due-pass recommendations or unanimous passage, advancing proposals on childcare workforce standards, noncompete covenants, paid family and medical leave, transportation network company (TNC) records, protections for military spouses, interest-arbitration factors for adult family homes, limits on driver-license job requirements, ferry bargaining-unit consolidation, and penalties and training for isolated workers.

The committee’s action comes amid debate over implementation details for several measures and targeted opposition on parts of some bills. The most contested items included the bill to create a Washington State Childcare Workforce Standards Board and a bill expanding job protections under the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave program.

House Bill 1128: Childcare workforce standards

House Bill 11 28, as moved in committee as a proposed substitute, would establish a Washington State Childcare Workforce Standards Board to adopt minimum standards for compensation and other employment conditions of childcare workers. The proposed substitute narrows the definition of “childcare worker” to direct providers (excluding administrative staff), retains family childcare providers, allows the board to set region-specific standards, adjusts language on funding contingencies, reduces the number of languages required for written training materials from four to three, and requires a formal data‑sharing agreement between the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).

Vice Chair Fosse urged the committee to support the substitute, calling it “a critical step at addressing our childcare crisis.” Representative Rahimah Rashad said she opposed the measure “not because we don't want to solve the child care crisis, but because we do believe that this would immediately inflate wages of childcare workers and the owners of those facilities are struggling with state regulations.” The committee voted to report the substitute out of committee with a due-pass recommendation (6 ayes, 3 nays).

House Bill 1155: Noncompetition covenants

House Bill 11 55, as offered in the proposed substitute, would make noncompetition covenants void and unenforceable regardless of when parties entered them but delays the effective date to June 30, 2026, and corrects certain terminology and timing language for when lawsuits may be brought. Sponsors described the change as providing market predictability and time for affected…