Child care workforce board

AN ACT Relating to establishing a child care workforce standards 1
board; and adding a new chapter to Title 49 RCW. 2
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:3
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds and declares the 4
following:5
(a) High quality child care and early learning enable parents to 6
go to work, keeping the economy going at all levels and returning six 7
dollars in value for every one dollar invested. High quality early 8
learning services help prepare children for success in school and in 9
life. A high quality child care and early learning system depends on 10
a thriving, healthy, and competitively compensated workforce. Current 11
conditions for child care workers have resulted in lack of access, 12
unaffordable prices, and poorer outcomes for children and families;13
(b) Low compensation and poor working conditions impair the 14
health, efficiency, and well-being of persons employed to provide 15
child care, constitute unfair competition against other employers and 16
their employees, threaten the stability of the child care market, 17
create economic instability for providers, and result in a provider 18
workforce that must rely in public and private assistance to support 19
their own families; 20
H-0170.1
HOUSE BILL 1128
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Fosse, Stonier, Berry, Bronoske, Davis, Taylor,
Wylie, Nance, Pollet, Ormsby, Scott, Mena, Doglio, Alvarado, Berg,
Peterson, Goodman, Reeves, Reed, Parshley, Stearns, Simmons, Cortes,
Ramel, Ryu, Timmons, Hackney, Kloba, Callan, Farivar, Ortiz-Self,
Paul, Morgan, Shavers, Macri, Obras, Rule, Fey, Lekanoff, Bergquist,
Salahuddin, Bernbaum, and Hill
Prefiled 12/23/24. Read first time 01/13/25. Referred to Committee
on Labor & Workplace Standards.
p. 1 HB 1128
(c) The fissured nature of child care workplaces exacerbates 1
these conditions and create barriers preventing workers from being 2
able to address these problems on their own; and 3
(d) Employment under these conditions threatens the health and 4
well-being of the people of Washington and injures the overall 5
economy. 6
(2) Therefore, it is the declared policy of the state that such 7
working conditions for child care workers be eliminated as rapidly as 8
practicable through establishment of a workforce standards board 9
comprised of employer and worker representatives and state agency 10
representatives to set minimum compensation and other employment 11
standards. 12
(3) To ensure the state's policy goals are achieved, it is 13
essential that child care workers are informed of their rights at 14
work and under this act; are encouraged and able to freely 15
participate in standard setting through the workforce standards board 16
process; and are protected against any retaliation for such 17
participation. 18
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The definitions in this section apply 19
throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires 20
otherwise.21
(1) "Board" means the Washington state child care workforce 22
standards board established pursuant to this chapter.23
(2) "Certified worker organization" means a worker organization 24
that is certified by the board as qualified to conduct worker 25
trainings for the purposes of this chapter. 26
(3) "Child care employer" means any employer of child care 27
workers. 28
(4) "Child care worker" means any worker providing child care 29
services, excluding administrative staff. "Child care worker" 30
includes family child care providers as defined in RCW 41.56.030.31
(5) "Department" means the department of labor and industries.32
(6) "Director" means the director of the department of labor and 33
industries or the director's designee. 34
(7) "Employer organization" means: 35
(a) An organization that is exempt from federal income taxation 36
under section 510 (c)(6) of the internal revenue code that represents 37
child care employers; or 38
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(b) An entity that employers, who together employ the largest 1
number of child care workers in Washington, have selected as a 2
representative. 3
(8) "Worker organization" means a worker organization exempt from 4
federal income taxation under section 501 (c)(3), (4), or (5) of the 5
internal revenue code, that is not dominated or interfered with by 6
any child care employer within the meaning of United States Code, 7
Title 29, section 158a (2), and that has a minimum of five years 8
demonstrated experience engaging with and advocating for employment 9
standards for child care workers. 10
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) The Washington state childcare 11
workforce standards board is created with the powers and duties 12
established by law. The board is composed of members appointed by the 13
governor as provided in this subsection:14
(a) Three members who represent child care workers, at least one 15
of whom must be appointed from a list of at least three names 16
submitted by the largest organization representing family child care 17
providers and at least one of whom must be appointed from a list of 18
at least three names submitted by the largest organization 19
representing child care center workers; 20
(b) Three members who represent child care employers or employer 21
organizations, with at least one representing child care family home 22
providers; 23
(c) One representative of a professional development or training 24
program for child care workers; 25
(d) One representative of an organization representing parents; 26
and 27
(e) The secretary of the department of children, youth, and 28
families and the director of the department of labor and industries, 29
or their designees. 30
(2) Board members appointed under subsection (1)(a) or (b) of this 31
section shall serve four-year terms following the initial staggered 32
lot determination in subsection (3) of this section and must not be 33
appointed to more than two full consecutive four-year terms. The 34
governor shall fill vacancies occurring prior to the expiration of a 35
member's term by appointment for the unexpired term. A member serves 36
until a successor is appointed. 37
(3)(a) The governor must make initial appointments to the board 38
no later than September 1, 2025. The initial terms for board members 39
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appointed under subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this section must be 1
determined by lot as follows: 2
(i) One member appointed under subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this 3
section shall serve a two-year term; 4
(ii) One member appointed under subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this 5
section shall serve a three-year term; and 6
(iii) One member appointed under subsection (1)(a) and (b) of 7
this section shall serve a four-year term. 8
(b) The director must convene the first meeting of the board by 9
October 1, 2025. The board must elect a chair at its first meeting.10
(4) The board shall elect a member by majority vote to serve as 11
its chairperson and shall determine the term to be served by the 12
chairperson. 13
(5) Board members must be compensated in accordance with RCW 14
43.03.220 and must be reimbursed for travel expenses as provided in 15
RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060. 16
(6) The affirmative vote of five board members is required for 17
the board to take any action, including actions necessary to 18
establish minimum child care employment standards under section 4 of 19
this act. 20
(7) To carry out its duties, the board shall hold public hearings 21
on, and conduct investigations into, working conditions in the child 22
care industry in accordance with section 4 of this act.23
(8) The director may employ personnel to carry out duties of the 24
board under this chapter. 25
(9) The director shall provide administrative staff support to 26
the board. 27
(10) The department may adopt new rules to implement or enforce 28
this chapter. 29
(11) The board shall establish operating procedures that meet all 30
state and federal antitrust requirements and may prohibit board 31
member access to data to meet the requirements of this subsection.32
(12) The board is subject to the requirements of chapters 34.05 33
and 42.56 RCW. 34
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1)(a) The board must adopt rules 35
establishing minimum child care employment standards that are 36
reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect the health and safety 37
of child care workers, to ensure that child care workers are properly 38
trained about and fully informed of their rights under this chapter, 39
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and to otherwise satisfy the purposes of this act. Standards 1
established by the board must include, as appropriate, standards on 2
compensation and other working conditions for child care workers. In 3
establishing standards under this section, the board must establish 4
statewide standards and may adopt standards that apply to specific 5
child care occupations. 6
(b) The board may not adopt standards regarding licensing of 7
child care facilities. The board may not adopt standards that are 8
less protective of or beneficial to child care workers as any other 9
applicable statute or rule or any standard previously established by 10
the board unless there is a determination by the board under 11
subsection (2)(c) or (d) of this section. 12
(c) The board must adopt rules establishing initial standards for 13
wages for child care workers no later than August 1, 2026. The board 14
shall consult with the department in the development of these 15
standards prior to beginning the rule adoption process.16
(d) To the extent that any minimum standards that the board finds 17
are reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect the health and 18
safety of child care workers fall within the jurisdiction of chapter 19
49.17 RCW, the board shall not adopt rules establishing the standards 20
but shall instead recommend the occupational health and safety 21
standards to the director. The director shall initiate rule making 22
under chapter 49.17 RCW on child care health and safety standards as 23
recommended by the board, unless the director determines that the 24
recommended standard is outside the statutory authority of the 25
department, is already covered under existing standards, presents 26
enforceability challenges, is infeasible to implement, or is 27
otherwise unlawful and issues a written explanation of this 28
determination. 29
(2)(a) The board must investigate market conditions and the 30
existing wages, benefits, and working conditions of child care 31
workers for specific geographic areas of the state and specific child 32
care occupations. Based on this information, the board must seek to 33
adopt minimum child care employment standards that meet or exceed 34
existing industry conditions for a majority of child care workers in 35
the relevant geographic area and child care occupation. Except as 36
provided in (c) and (d) of this subsection, initial employment 37
standards established by the board are effective beginning January 1, 38
2027, and remain in effect until any subsequent standards are adopted 39
by rules. 40
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(b) The board must consider the following types of information in 1
making determinations that employment standards are reasonably 2
necessary to protect the health and welfare of child care workers:3
(i) Wage rate and benefit data collected by or submitted to the 4
board for child care workers in the relevant geographic area and 5
child care occupations; 6
(ii) Statements showing wage rates and benefits paid to child 7
care workers in the relevant geographic area and child care 8
occupations; 9
(iii) Signed collective bargaining agreements applicable to child 10
care workers in the relevant geographic area and child care 11
occupations; 12
(iv) Testimony and information from current and former child care 13
workers, worker organizations, child care employers, parents of 14
children currently in child care, and child care organizations;15
(v) Local minimum employment standards; 16
(vi) Information submitted by or obtained from state and local 17
government entities, including registries or data regarding employee 18
training, recruitment, and retention; 19
(vii) Information from a federally approved rate-setting tool for 20
child care funding; and 21
(viii) Any other information pertinent to establishing minimum 22
child care employment standards. 23
(c) If the established child care employment standards result in 24
an increase in costs that exceed any applicable federal payments, the 25
standards are not effective until an appropriation sufficient to 26
cover the rate increase is obtained. 27
(d) If the established child care employment standards result in 28
an increase in costs for services covered under RCW 41.56.028, the 29
standards are not effective until the legislature appropriates 30
funding sufficient to cover the increase in costs.31
(3) At least once every four years, the board shall:32
(a) Conduct a full review of the adequacy of the minimum child 33
care employment standards previously established by the board; and34
(b) Following that review, adopt new rules, amend or repeal 35
existing rules, or make recommendations to adopt new rules or amend 36
or repeal existing rules for minimum child care employment standards, 37
as appropriate to meet the purposes of this act. 38
(4)(a) In the event of a conflict between a standard established 39
by the board in rule and a rule adopted by another state agency, the 40
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rule adopted by the board applies to child care workers and child 1
care employers. 2
(b) Notwithstanding (a) of this subsection, in the event of a 3
conflict between a standard established by the board in rule and a 4
rule adopted by another state agency, the rule adopted by the other 5
state agency applies to child care workers and child care employers 6
if the rule adopted by the other state agency is adopted after the 7
board's standard and the rule adopted by the other state agency is 8
more protective or beneficial than the board's standard.9
(c) Notwithstanding (a) of this subsection, if the secretary of 10
the department of children, youth, and families determines that a 11
standard established by the board in rule or recommended by the board 12
conflicts with requirements in federal regulations for child care 13
certification or with state statutes or rules governing licensure of 14
child care employers, the federal regulations or state child care 15
licensure statutes or rules take precedence, and the conflicting 16
board standard or rule does not apply to child care workers or child 17
care employers. The secretary is required to provide a written 18
explanation of the rule or recommendation and how it conflicts with 19
the federal regulations. 20
(5) Nothing in this act may be construed to: 21
(a) Limit the rights of parties to a collective bargaining 22
agreement to bargain and agree with respect to child care employment 23
standards; or 24
(b) Diminish the obligation of a child care employer to comply 25
with any contract, collective bargaining agreement, or employment 26
benefit program or plan that meets or exceeds, and does not conflict 27
with, the minimum standards and requirements established by the board 28
under this chapter. 29
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) The board must certify worker 30
organizations that it finds are qualified to provide training to 31
childcare workers according to this section. The board shall by rule 32
establish certification criteria that a worker organization must meet 33
in order to be certified and provide a process for renewal of 34
certification upon the board's review of the worker organization's 35
compliance with this section. The criteria must ensure that a worker 36
organization, if certified, is able to provide:37
(a) Effective, interactive training on the information required 38
by this section; and 39
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(b) Follow-up written materials and responses to inquiries from 1
child care workers in the four languages most commonly spoken by 2
child care workers in the state. 3
(2)(a) The board shall establish requirements for the curriculum 4
for the child care worker training required by this section. A 5
curriculum must at least provide the following information to child 6
care workers: 7
(i) The applicable compensation and working conditions in the 8
minimum standards or local minimum standards established by the 9
board; 10
(ii) The antiretaliation protections established in sections 7 11
and 8 of this act; 12
(iii) Information on how to enforce this act and on how to report 13
violations of this act or of standards established by the board, 14
including contact information for the department, the board, and any 15
local enforcement agencies, and information on the remedies available 16
for violations; 17
(iv) The purposes and functions of the board and information on 18
upcoming hearings, investigations, or other opportunities for child 19
care workers to become involved in board proceedings;20
(v) Other rights, duties, and obligations under this chapter;21
(vi) Any updates or changes to the information provided according 22
to subsection (2) of this section since the most recent training 23
session; 24
(vii) Any other information the board deems appropriate to 25
facilitate compliance with this act; and 26
(viii) Information on labor standards in other applicable local, 27
state, and federal laws, rules, and ordinances regarding child care 28
working conditions or child care worker health and safety.29
(b) Before establishing initial curriculum requirements, the 30
board must hold at least one public hearing to solicit input on the 31
requirements. 32
(3) A certified worker organization is not required to cover all 33
of the topics listed in subsection (2) of this section in a single 34
training session. A curriculum used by a certified worker 35
organization may provide instruction on each topic listed in 36
subsection (2) of this section over the course of up to three 37
training sessions. 38
(4) The board must review the adequacy of its curriculum 39
requirements at least annually and must revise the requirements as 40
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appropriate to meet the purposes of this act. As part of each annual 1
review of the curriculum requirements, the board must hold at least 2
one public hearing to solicit input on the requirements.3
(5) A certified worker organization: 4
(a) Must use a curriculum for its training sessions that meets 5
requirements established by the board; 6
(b) Must provide trainings that are interactive and conducted in 7
the languages in which the attending child care workers are 8
proficient; 9
(c) Must, at the end of each training session, provide attending 10
child care workers with follow-up written or electronic materials on 11
the topics covered in the training session, in order to fully inform 12
child care workers of their rights and opportunities under this 13
chapter; 14
(d) Must make itself reasonably available to respond to inquiries 15
from child care workers during and after training sessions; and16
(e) May conduct surveys of child care workers who attend a 17
training session to assess the effectiveness of the training session 18
and industry compliance with this act and other applicable laws, 19
rules, and ordinances governing child care working conditions or 20
worker health and safety. 21
(6)(a) A child care employer must ensure that every two years 22
each of its child care workers completes one hour of training that 23
meets the requirements of this section and is provided by a certified 24
worker organization. The child care employer must certify its 25
compliance with this subsection to the board. A child care employer 26
may, but is not required to, host training sessions on their 27
premises. 28
(b) If requested by a certified worker organization, a child care 29
employer must, after a training session provided by the certified 30
worker organization, provide the certified worker organization with 31
the names and contact information of the child care workers who 32
attended the training session, unless a child care worker opts out 33
according to (c) of this subsection. 34
(c) A child care worker may opt out of having the worker's child 35
care employer provide the worker's name and contact information to a 36
certified worker organization that provided a training session 37
attended by the worker by submitting a written statement to that 38
effect to the child care employer. 39
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(7) A child care employer must compensate its child care workers 1
at their regular hourly rate of wages and benefits for each hour of 2
training completed as required by this section and reimburse any 3
travel expenses if the training sessions are not held on their 4
premises. 5
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1)(a) Child care employers must provide 6
notices informing child care workers of the rights and obligations 7
provided under this chapter of applicable minimum child care 8
employment standards and local minimum standards and that for 9
assistance and information, child care workers should contact the 10
department. A child care employer must provide notice using the same 11
means that the child care employer uses to provide other work-related 12
notices to child care workers. Provision of notice must be at least 13
as conspicuous as:14
(i) Posting a copy of the notice at each work site where child 15
care workers work and where the notice may be readily seen and 16
reviewed by all child care workers working at the site; or17
(ii) Providing a paper or electronic copy of the notice to all 18
child care workers and applicants for employment as a child care 19
worker. 20
(b) The notice required by this section must include text 21
provided by the board that informs child care workers that they may 22
request the notice to be provided in a particular language. The child 23
care employer must provide the notice in the language requested by 24
the child care worker. The board must assist child care employers in 25
translating the notice in the four languages most commonly spoken by 26
child care workers in the state. 27
(2) The board must adopt rules specifying the minimum content and 28
posting requirements for the notices required in this section. The 29
board must make available to child care employers a template or 30
sample notice that satisfies the requirements of this section and 31
rules adopted under this section. 32
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. (1) A child care employer may not 33
discharge, discipline, penalize, interfere with, threaten, restrain, 34
coerce, or otherwise retaliate or discriminate against a child care 35
worker because the person has exercised or attempted to exercise 36
rights protected under this act, including but not limited to:37
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(a) Exercising any right afforded to the child care worker under 1
this act; 2
(b) Participating in any process or proceeding under this act 3
including, but not limited to, board hearings, board or department 4
investigations, or other related proceedings; 5
(c) Communicating with other child care workers or participating 6
in activities with a worker organization regarding matters covered 7
under this act; or 8
(d) Attending or participating in the training required by 9
section 5 of this act. 10
(2) It is unlawful for an employer to: 11
(a) Inform another employer that a child care worker or former 12
child care worker has engaged in activities protected under this 13
chapter; or 14
(b) Report or threaten to report the actual or suspected 15
citizenship or immigration status of a child care worker, former 16
child care worker, or family member of a child care worker to a 17
federal, state, or local agency for exercising or attempting to 18
exercise any right protected under this act. 19
(3)(a) If a child care employer takes adverse action against an 20
employee or a former employee within 90 days of the employee engaging 21
or attempting to engage in activities protected by this chapter, 22
there is a rebuttable presumption that the adverse action is a 23
retaliatory action in violation of this section. 24
(b) The presumption may be rebutted by a preponderance of 25
evidence that: 26
(i) The action was taken for other permissible reasons; and27
(ii) The engaging or attempting to engage in activities protected 28
by this chapter was not one of the substantial motivating factors in 29
the adverse action. 30
(4) A person found to have experienced retaliation in violation 31
of this section is entitled to back pay and reinstatement to the 32
person's previous position, wages, benefits, hours, and other 33
conditions of employment. 34
(5) The department must carry out and enforce the provisions of 35
this section pursuant to procedures established under chapter 49.46 36
RCW and any applicable rules. The department may adopt new rules to 37
implement or enforce this section. 38
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NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. (1) Except as provided in section 4 (4) (b) 1
and (c) of this act, the minimum wages and other working conditions 2
established by the board in rule as minimum child care employment 3
standards are the minimum wages and standard conditions of labor for 4
child care workers or a subgroup of child care workers as a matter of 5
state law. Except as provided in section 4 (4) (b) and (c) of this 6
act, it is unlawful for a child care employer to employ a child care 7
worker for lower wages than those established as the minimum child 8
care employment standards or under any other working conditions that 9
violate the minimum child care employment standards.10
(2) The director may investigate possible violations of this 11
chapter or of the minimum child care employment standards established 12
by the board whenever it has cause to believe that a violation has 13
occurred, either on the basis of a report of a suspected violation or 14
on the basis of any other credible information, including violations 15
found during the course of an investigation. 16
(3)(a) One or more child care workers deeming themselves to be 17
injured by any act in violation of this chapter has a civil action in 18
a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin further violations, to 19
obtain reinstatement, to recover the actual damages sustained by the 20
person, together with the cost of suit including reasonable attorney 21
fees. 22
(b) A child care worker found to have experienced retaliation in 23
violation of section 7 of this act is entitled to back pay and 24
reinstatement to the worker's previous position, wages, benefits, 25
hours, and other conditions of employment. Filing a civil action 26
under this subsection terminates the director's processing of the 27
complaint under section 7 of this act. 28
(c) An agreement between a child care employer and child care 29
worker or labor union that fails to meet the minimum standards and 30
requirements in this chapter or established by the board is not a 31
defense to an action brought under this subsection.32
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. This act may be known and cited as the 33
child care workforce standards board act.34
NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. Sections 1 through 9 of this act 35
constitute a new chapter in Title 49 RCW.36
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