Washington State Senate passes landmark paid family and medical leave bill

By a vote of thir­ty-sev­en to twelve (a three-to-one mar­gin), the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate has passed a land­mark paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave bill that will strength­en the eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty and well-being of fam­i­lies across the Ever­green State.

Sub­sti­tute Sen­ate Bill 5975 is the prod­uct of pro­longed nego­ti­a­tions between the four state­house cau­cus­es, busi­ness groups, labor unions, and oth­er stake­hold­ers. Leg­isla­tive staff have sum­ma­rized it as follows:

Brief Sum­ma­ry of First Sub­sti­tute Bill

• Pro­vides paid fam­i­ly leave of up to 12 weeks to bond after the birth or place­ment of a child or to care for a fam­i­ly mem­ber with a seri­ous health condition.
• Pro­vides paid med­ical leave of up to 12 weeks fo r an employ­ee’s seri­ous health condition.
• Lim­its com­bined leave to 16 weeks in a year, plus an addi­tion­al two weeks if there are preg­nan­cy com­pli­ca­tions, for a pos­si­ble total of 18 weeks. Requires a sev­en-day wait­ing peri­od for leave, except for the birth or place­ment of a child.
• Pro­vides leave for a mil­i­tary exigency.
• Requires an employ­ee to work 820 hours in the qual­i­fy­ing peri­od to be eligible.
• Spec­i­fies a pre­mi­um of 0.4 per­cent of wages begin­ning on Jan­u­ary 1, 2019. Pre­mi­ums assessed to employ­ers and employ­ees vary. An employ­er may pay the employ­ee’s share.
• Bases ben­e­fits on an employ­ee’s wages and may be paid begin­ning Jan­u­ary 1, 2020.
• Autho­rizes employ­ers to oper­ate their own equiv­a­lent vol­un­tary plans.
• Includes spe­cial pro­vi­sions for small businesses.
• Allows tribes and self-employed indi­vid­u­als to opt- in.

The bill text is avail­able here.

The roll call vote on SSB 5975 was as follows:

Roll Call
SSB 5975
Paid fam­i­ly & med­ical leave
3rd Read­ing & Final Passage
6/30/2017

Yeas: 37; Nays: 12

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Beck­er, Bil­lig, Braun, Car­lyle, Chase, Cleve­land, Con­way, Darneille, Fain, For­tu­na­to, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hobbs, Hunt, Keis­er, King, Kud­er­er, Liias, McCoy, Milos­cia, Mul­let, Nel­son, O’Ban, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ranker, Rivers, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Schoesler, Takko, Van De Wege, Walsh, War­nick, Well­man, Wil­son, Zeiger

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Angel, Bai­ley, Baum­gart­ner, Brown, Erick­sen, Hawkins, Hon­ey­ford, Pad­den, Pear­son, Rossi, Shel­don, Short

Democ­rats were unit­ed in their sup­port of the leg­is­la­tion, while Repub­li­cans were divid­ed, with their cau­cus split­ting right down the middle.

The Repub­li­cans who vot­ed for the bill were:

1. Ran­di Becker
2. John Braun
3. Joe Fain
4. Phil For­tu­na­to
5. Cur­tis King
6. Mark Milos­cia
7. Steve O’Ban
8. Ann Rivers
9. Mark Schoesler
10. Mau­reen Walsh
11. Judy War­nick
12. Lyn­da Wilson
13. Hans Zeiger

The oth­er Repub­li­cans are list­ed above in the “nay” cat­e­go­ry. (We con­sid­er Tim Shel­don of Pot­latch a Repub­li­can because he cau­cus­es with the Repub­li­cans, talks and behaves like a Repub­li­can, and votes for oth­er Republicans.)

Even a bro­ken clock is right twice a day, and it’s nice to see a good bill pass out of the Sen­ate for a change, instead of sim­ply dying there.

SSB 5975 now heads to the state House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, where it is expect­ed to be eas­i­ly approved. It will then go to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee to be signed into law. Sen­ate pas­sage was the bil­l’s high­est hurdle.

NPI thanks the thir­ty-sev­en mem­bers of the Sen­ate who vot­ed to pass this leg­is­la­tion. Wash­ing­ton is a bet­ter state thanks to their action today.