As new laws are enacted, existing laws are expanded, and workplace trends change, so too do the types of cases employment law attorneys see more of.

Through the many legal additions and revisions, however, one employment law trend remains the same: Washington is a relatively employee-friendly state.

“Washington, as a whole, has always been on the forefront of employee protections,” says Steve Bergman, an attorney at Spokane-based Cooney Law Offices PS. “I know that other states may have less protective laws, which could lead to less inclusive workplaces.”

Bergman and colleague Alex Johnston, also an attorney at Cooney Law Offices, handle a lot of disability-related discrimination cases.

“There’s a pretty extensive accommodation requirement in Washington state,” Bergman says. “Sometimes, employers can get tripped up with those.”

Johnston says Washington’s discrimination laws include more protections than federal prohibitions, and that sometimes misleads employers.

“I think sometimes we see some confusion between what’s federally required versus what’s required in Washington state,” she says.

Susan Nelson, a partner at Spokane-based Dunn & Black PS, says she concurs that Washington is more employee friendly, and points to new and updated laws in recent years as evidence of that.

“A hot topic over the last three to four years has really been the enforcement of noncompetes,” Nelson says, referring to noncompete agreements, which are essentially clauses in employment contracts that prevent employees from leaving a job and working for a competitor or starting a competitor company.

“Washington state, in and of itself, has had a long history of disfavoring enforcement of noncompetes, enforcing employers to prove the necessity of it and the validity of it.”

The Washington state Legislature enacted noncompete statutes in 2020 and expanded them in 2024, she says. Under the expanded statutes, employees have to meet specific earnings thresholds for the noncompete agreements to be binding. Those thresholds change each year.

For 2025, the minimum earnings for an employee to be subject to a noncompete agreement is about $123,000 annually. For independent contractors, the minimum is about $308,000.

The new and expanded law has led to more noncompete cases for Nelson, although many of them are resolved quickly via letters and demands when Nelson points out that under the new law, the employee in question doesn’t meet the required earnings threshold.

“You also can’t lay an employee off and then say you’re going to bind them to a noncompete under the new law,” she says. “If you lay them off, you have to pay them their salary for every month you want to bind them to the noncompete.”

With such agreements in the past, attorneys had to look at case law because there wasn’t a statutory scheme in Washington that provided clear guidelines, Nelson says.

“Now that you have a statutory scheme, it kind of gives a playbook on what’s allowed and what isn’t,” she says. “You’re going to see more definitive legal action regarding that playbook, and that’ll die down as people become aware of what they can and cannot do.”

Cases regarding sick leave also have become more common since a law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to employees went into effect in 2018.

“Anyone who is an hourly nonexempt employee is entitled to one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours that they work,” Nelson says. “And while they cannot use the sick leave until their 90th day of employment, they still earn it.”

She continues, “There’s still a lot of movement in that area and disputes between employees and employers as people learn what that statute actually means and what they’re allowed to do.”

Nelson also mentions Washington’s pay transparency law that went into effect in 2023 as an example of a newer employee-friendly law.

Among other requirements, the pay transparency law requires employers to post pay ranges on job listings, rather than “up-to” figures.

Since the law was enacted, Nelson says there have been over 100 class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of employees.

Shifts in workplace trends also play a part in the types of cases that come across employment law attorneys’ desks.

Notably, cases related to remote work have been more common since the COVID-19 pandemic, says Michael Hines, of counsel attorney at Lukins & Annis PS, which has offices in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Moses Lake, Washington.

“Now, employers are wanting their folks to come back to be physically in the office. Employees are wondering if they can force a continuation of working remotely, and employers are examining if they can force employees to come back,” Hines says.

Typically, unless a standard, nonunion employee has a contractual right to be able to work remotely, employers can demand that they work in the office unless there’s a potential disability or a recognized medical leave issue, he explains.

Hines has also seen an uptick in wage-and-hour cases, more recently concerning overtime pay and compensation for mandatory breaks. He attributes the increase to employers maybe being a little slower to adapt to some of the wage-and-hour specifics.

For certain types of jobs and work environments, there has been a practice of allowing employees to work through their lunch hours or rest breaks, notwithstanding wage-and-hour laws directing otherwise, Hines says. Those practices are now being examined more closely, and wage-and-hour violations are being litigated more aggressively, he says.

Hines contends that attorneys representing employees nationwide believe that some companies weren’t following those laws on a systemic basis, and that seems to be the case in Washington too.

“Some of the laws are a bit ambiguous, so there’s been more refinement through case law as to what’s required of employers,” Hines says. “This state is a very employee-friendly state, so when there is ambiguity or uncertainty, they tend to be interpreted in the favor of the employee.”

Shifts in societal trends also can lead to upticks in certain types of cases.

At Cooney Law Offices, Bergman and Johnston have noticed an increase in cases related to the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave Act.

“We’re seeing a lot of violations of the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave Act as it pertains specifically to childbirth and specifically paternity leave for dads,” Johnston says. “I think a lot of employers understand that it’s protected leave for the mom, the birthing parent, but they struggle with the idea that that job protection, or protection itself, extends to dads as well.”

Bergman says longtime societal behaviors may be to blame.

“Some employers have more of an old-school train of thought,” Bergman says. “But I think society is changing a little bit in that regard, and there’s a lot more stay-at-home dads now, or there’s dads that just want to spend time with their newborn.”

Nelson also sees a lot of cases that are the result of employers who haven’t adapted to new or updated laws.

“You have a lot of mom-and-pop shops, especially in Eastern Washington, that have had certain practices in play for 20, 30, 40 years, and they’re unaware of the new laws that require certain compliance, and so they make missteps,” she says.

Nelson says that many employers don’t have bad intentions but are just unaware of changes in the laws.

“The state could do a better job of keeping employers informed and letting them know that this is what’s going to go into effect, and this is what you need to do,” she says. “I don’t think that’s necessarily happening.”

Nelson recommends that to stay up to date on new or changing laws, employers should refer to the Washington state Department of Labor & Industries website or contact a law firm.