As your Chamber, we want you to be prepared for the year ahead. The following laws will go into effect on or shortly after January 1, 2026. Please click on the linked bill title for more information or contact us with any questions at: lillyh@seattlechamber.com or sarahc@seattlechamber.com.
Taxes and Fees
ESHB 2061: Duty-free concessions
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: duty-free sales enterprises
- Effect: Imposes a new concession fee, equal to 10 percent of the gross proceeds of sales of merchandise by the duty-free enterprise. Fee is separate and in addition to all other taxes and fees applicable to duty-free sales enterprises.
SHB 2020: Payment Card Processing/ B&O Tax
- Business & Industries Impacted: Credit card processors
- Effect: A Business & Occupation rate of 3.1 percent is established for payment card processing activities, meaning services related to acquiring, processing, or routing electronic transactions for issuers, acquirers, payment networks, or merchants.
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Insurance providers, sellers of precious metals and bullion, light & power or gas distribution businesses, providers of international services, and nonprofit corporations providing public safety services to Washington.
- Effect: These impacted business types will lose state Business & Occupation tax exemptions & preferences.
Industry Standards
ESSB 5486: Motion Picture Captioning
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Movie Theatres that are open to the public for a charge.
- Effect: Theaters are required to provide 1) closed captioning technology for the public in each screening of moving that has closed captioning available, and 2) open captioning if available. If the operating theater has 5 or more locations in the state, they must run a certain number of screenings with opening captioning within different periods of time; theaters with fewer than 5 locations must provide open-captioned screening within eight days of receiving a request.
SB 5206- Concerning cannabis retailer advertising
- Business & Industries Impacted: Cannabis retailers
- Effect: The number of cannabis-related advertising signs permitted outside a cannabis retailer’s premises is increased to four signs and does not include trade name signs (2 permitted) or billboards.
SB 5403: Limiting financial interest agreements for licensed cannabis retailers
- Business & Industries Impacted: Cannabis retailers, retail licensees & all other persons or entities with a financial or other ownership interest.
- Effect: The impacted parties above are prohibited from entering into any agreement that confers a financial interest across more than five retail cannabis licenses, including agreements entered under existing authorization for cannabis licensees to have their place of business conducted by a manager or agent.
Workplace standards, benefits, and employment law
SB 5498: Contraceptive Coverage
- Business & Industries Impacted: Health plan providers
- Effect: The existing requirement to provide a 12-month supply of contraceptive drugs obtained at one time by the enrollee, unless otherwise requested by the enrollee or prescriber, is applied to all prescriptions of contraceptive drugs, not just refills.
SHB 1162: Concerning workplace violence in healthcare settings
- Business & Industries Impacted: Healthcare settings (certain hospitals, hospice and homecare agencies, evaluation and treatment facilities, and community mental health agencies).
- Effect: Healthcare settings must conduct a timely investigation of every workplace violence incident, including an assessment aimed at identifying factors contributing to or causing the violence. Also, they must report to the workplace’s safety committee a summary of records of incidents, analysis of systemic or common causes, and relevant recommendations for modifying the workplace violence prevention plan.
E2SHB 1213: Expanding protections for workers in the state paid family and medical leave program
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: All employers
- Effect:
- Benefits eligibility: Minimum claim period reduced to 4 consecutive hours.
- Premiums: Employer size now calculated as an average headcount over the last four quarters
- Small employers: Employer size threshold lowers over time: 25+ employees (2026), 15+ (2027), 8+ (2028).
- No minimum hours worked; employees qualify after 180 days of employment.
- Protection applies to Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) and approved voluntary plans.
- Job protection limits clarified: Protection capped at 16 weeks in 52 weeks (18 weeks for pregnancy-related incapacity).
- Restoration rights are forfeited if not exercised when leave ends.
- Family & Medical Leave (FMLA) coordination: Unpaid FMLA leave may count toward PFML job protection if required written notices are provided.
- Health coverage: Employers must maintain health insurance during any PFML-protected leave.
- Small business grants: 50–150 employees: modified grant eligibility; new $3,000 grant for employers with fewer than 50 employees.
- Applications due within 12 months after the employee’s first day of leave; limits on frequency and per-employee use.
2SHB 1524: Safety & Health/Employment Discrimination- Isolated Employees
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Employers of isolated employees (i.e., any janitor, security guard, hotel or motel housekeeper, or rooms service attendant who performs work in an area where two or more coworkers, supervisors, or a combination thereof are unable to immediately respond to an emergency without being summoned by the employee).
- Effect: Employer must: document the completion of mandatory training; include use of panic button in training and maintain records of the purchase and use of panic buttons; and report required information to L&I annually if the employer is a property service contractor providing janitorial services. L&I may order the employer to pay a civil penalty of $1,000 for each willful violation.
SHB 1879- Wage & Hour- Meal & Rest Periods- Hospital Workers
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Hospitals
- Effect: A hospital and an employee may voluntarily agree to waive the meal period in a work shift of less than eight hours; the second and/or third meal period in a work shift of eight hours or longer, so long as at least one meal period is provided and taken during the shift; and the timing requirements for meal and rest periods, so long as the meal period starts no earlier than the third hour worked and no later than the second to last hour scheduled.
SSB 5101- Leave- Hate Crime Victims
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: All employers
- Effect: An employee may take reasonable leave from work or request a reasonable safety accommodation if the employee or the employee’s family member is a victim of a hate crime. An employee may require accommodation.
E2SSB 5217- Safety & Health- Pregnancy Accommodations
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: All employers
- Effect: An employer is required to pay an employee for break time, and travel time if the business does not have a private location other than a bathroom, to express milk during work at the employee’s regular compensation rate. An employer may not require an employee to use paid leave during break or travel time to express milk.
SB 5463- Workers’ Compensation- Good Faith & Fair Dealing
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Employers who self-insure workers compensation and their third-party administrators.
- Effect: The duty of good faith and fair dealing applies to all workers’ compensation self-insurers and third party-administrations, rather than only self-insured municipal employees, and self-insured private sector firefighter employers and their third-party administrators. Self-insured employers cover all costs associated with an on-the-job injury or occupational disease.
Specialized Industries
EHB 1874: Textured Hair training
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Cosmetologists, barbers, estheticians, and hair designers.
- Effect: In establishing training criteria for the above professions, the Department of Labor must include training on the care, styling, and treatment of textured hair, including information about cutting, styling, chemical treatments, products, best practices, and cultural competency and historical education.
SSB 5528: Concerning the installation of transportation electrification infrastructure
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Individuals and businesses installing electric vehicle supply equipment.
- Effect: the installation of electric vehicle supply equipment on all public works must be performed by persons certified by the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP) or a similar nationally recognized program.
ESHB 1533: Building & Construction- Specialty Electricians
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Apprenticeship committees representing a single employer and operating a general journey level electrician apprenticeship program.
- Effect: Employer may use a registered apprentice to perform work under the valid specialty electrician certificate of competency while participating in the program and without the employer having to change the apprentice’s status in the program; employer must meet certain requirements.
ESB 1173: Building & Construction- Wages for Workers at High Hazard Facilities
- Businesses & Industries Impacted: Owners & operators of petroleum refineries and petrochemical manufacturing facilities.
- Effect: Requirements for registered apprentices are modified.
SHB 1162: Concerning workplace violence in healthcare settings
- Business & Industries Impacted: Healthcare settings (certain hospitals, hospice and homecare agencies, evaluation and treatment facilities, and community mental health agencies).
- Effect: Healthcare settings must conduct a timely investigation of every workplace violence incident, including an assessment aimed at identifying factors contributing to or causing the violence. Also, they must report to the workplace’s safety committee a summary of records of incidents, analysis of systemic or common causes, and relevant recommendations for modifying the workplace violence prevention plan.