OLYMPIA, WA – New protections for domestic workers in Washington will take effect next year under a bill Gov. Bob Ferguson signed Monday.
Before the bill signing, close to 100 people gathered on the north steps of the state Capitol to celebrate the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Sponsored by Rep. Brianna Thomas, D-West Seattle, House Bill 2355 enshrines protections for workers such as nannies, housekeepers and gardeners, who work four or more hours a month.
“This industry was born out of slavery and indentured servitude and today we say no more,” Thomas told the crowd. “We say we matter, we’re here and we deserve the same protections as anyone else.”
The bill requires employers to give domestic workers minimum wage and overtime pay, mandates written agreements between employers and workers, allows workers to file labor claims to the state Department of Labor and Industries, and requires advance notice of termination.
The law will take effect July 1, 2027.
Ana Bello has been working as a domestic worker in the United States for around five years. Today, she is celebrating what she sees as basic rights for the profession.
When she arrived in the United States, an employer retained her legal documents to prevent her from finding work elsewhere. This bill prohibits that practice.
“There are many people who still view you as a slave,” Bello said in Spanish. “When you don’t know the laws … the world closes in on you. You don’t have identification, you can’t get another job. It’s a way to retain not only your papers but yourself.”
Bello is grateful for the passage of the bill, but sees room for more progress. Domestic workers are typically not given health care, vacation time or retirement, she added.
The bill requires that workers earn at least one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked.
The policy has been in the works in the Legislature for years, and Thomas, who grew up as the daughter of a domestic worker, said she is “happy to be the closer on this really important bill.”
“Domestic workers can be more vulnerable than other workers, being primarily immigrants and people of color, to having their documents withheld by their employer,” Thomas said. It “restricts your movement not only through our economy but in and out of our country, which we know is already a pretty sticky widget.”
Thomas said some of the policy was modeled after Seattle’s domestic worker protections, which she helped write. That policy passed in 2018 and made Seattle the first city in the country to have such protections.
Gov. Bob Ferguson applauded the multiyear effort to get the bill over the finish line, before signing the legislation. “Perseverance is why we got here today,” he said.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.
