House of Representatives passes bills to raise minimum wage and provide sick + safe leave

In a sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry for work­ing peo­ple, the Wash­ing­ton’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives tonight adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion to raise the state’s min­i­mum wage to twelve dol­lars an hour by 2019. Fifty-one rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed to pass HB 1355, while forty-six vot­ed against pas­sage. One rep­re­sen­ta­tive was excused.

The roll call was as follows:

Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Bergquist, Blake, Car­lyle, Clib­born, Cody, Dun­shee, Far­rell, Fey, Fitzgib­bon, Good­man, Gregerson, Gre­go­ry, Hansen, Hud­gins, S. Hunt, Hunter, Hurst, Jink­ins, Kagi, Kil­duff, Kir­by, Lyt­ton, McBride, Moeller, Mor­ris, Moscoso, Orms­by, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Peter­son, Pet­ti­grew, Pol­let, Reyk­dal, Ric­cel­li, Robin­son, Ryu, San­tos, Sawyer, Sells, Senn, Springer, Stan­ford, Sul­li­van, Takko, Tar­leton, Tharinger, Van De Wege, Walkin­shaw, Wylie, Mr. Speaker

Vot­ing Nay: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Buys, Caldier, Chan­dler, Con­dot­ta, DeBolt, Dent, Fagan, Grif­fey, Haler, Har­grove, Harmsworth, Har­ris, Hawkins, Hayes, Holy, G. Hunt, John­son, Klip­pert, Kochmar, Kretz, MacEwen, Magen­danz, Man­weller, McCabe, McCaslin, Muri, Nealey, Orcutt, Park­er, Pike, Rodne, Schmick, Scott, Shea, Short, Smith, Stam­baugh, Stokes­bary, Tay­lor, Van Wer­ven, Vick, Walsh, Wilcox, Wil­son, Young, Zeiger

Excused: Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kristiansen

Only Democ­rats vot­ed in favor of HB 1355, prime-spon­sored by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jessyn Far­rell (D‑46th Dis­trict, Seat­tle), and only Repub­li­cans vot­ed against… a clas­sic par­ty-line vote.

The high­er min­i­mum wage will be phased in over a peri­od of four years.

The first increase would bring the min­i­mum wage to ten dol­lars an hour this com­ing New Year’s (Jan­u­ary 1st, 2016). The wage would then be increased three more times in fifty cent or one dol­lar incre­ments. The final increase would bring the min­i­mum wage to $12 an hour by Jan­u­ary 1st, 2019.

After that time, the Depart­ment of Labor & Indus­tries (L&I) would be direct­ed to begin auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjust­ing the min­i­mum wage upwards again in accor­dance with the Con­sumer Price Index (CPI), as it has since 1998.

The House also adopt­ed HB 1356 today. That bill, prime spon­sored by Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lau­rie Jink­ins of Pierce Coun­ty, estab­lish­es min­i­mum stan­dards for sick and safe leave from employ­ment. The vote was fifty-one to forty-six, with one excused, and the roll call was the same as for HB 1355.

HB 1356 requires employ­ers to allow their work­ers to take at least forty hours of accrued paid sick or safe leave per year. It also allows peo­ple who work at busi­ness­es with more than fifty full-time equiv­a­lent employ­ees to take even greater amounts of paid leave. Employ­ers with four or few­er full-time equiv­a­lent employ­ees — along with cer­tain kinds of new com­pa­nies — are exempt from the requirements.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee issued a state­ment applaud­ing the vote on both bills.

“Today the House passed two mod­est, mea­sured and much-need­ed bills to give an eco­nom­ic lift to thou­sands of Washington’s low­est-wage work­ers,” Inslee said.

“I’ve always believed that a per­son who is will­ing and able to work hard for forty hours a week should be able to pro­vide the most basic needs for them­selves and their fam­i­lies. Washington’s econ­o­my is recov­er­ing, but it is leav­ing behind an increas­ing num­ber of low- and mid­dle-income work­ers. An increase in the state min­i­mum wage and paid sick and safe leave for all work­ers are good steps toward restor­ing a degree of eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty for those who need it most.

“I hope the Sen­ate will act on these bills and fol­low the House’s lead­er­ship in build­ing an econ­o­my that works for all Washingtonians.”