Washington State has long been a leader in worker protections and pay transparency, but that progress is now under direct assault. The Senate Committee on Labor and Commerce just advanced SB 5408, a Republican-led effort to gut the state's groundbreaking pay transparency law — a move that hands corporations a massive loophole to continue concealing wages and perpetuating pay inequities.
This bill shifts the burden of enforcement away from employers and onto job seekers — undermining the very foundation of Washington's 2022 Pay Transparency Law (RCW 49.58.110). If it passes, workers across the state will find themselves in the dark once again, unable to advocate for the fair wages they deserve.
In 2022, then-Sen. Emily Randall championed one of the strongest pay transparency laws in the nation, requiring employers with 15 or more employees to disclose salary ranges in job postings and provide details on benefits. It was a game changer for workers — especially women and People of Color, who disproportionately suffer from wage disparities.
The law put Washington at the forefront of equitable hiring practices, fostering fair competition, and empowering workers to make informed career choices. It closed loopholes, ensured accountability, and made it impossible for corporations to continue their long-standing habit of hiding pay scales and underpaying workers.
But now, corporate lobbyists have found their backdoor strategy to undo this progress — and they're using SB 5408 to do it.
At first glance, SB 5408 may seem like a minor procedural change. In reality, it's a blueprint for corporations to dismantle pay transparency, one job posting at a time.
The bill does four key things people need to pay attention to:
Shifts the burden of catching and enforcing the law onto job applicants.
Instead of requiring employers to comply with the law, workers would be responsible for notifying an employer when a job posting lacks salary transparency. (Presumably, they would have to notify authorities and provide documentation of employer notice too.)
Hands employers a free pass to hide wages.
Once notified, a company has 10 days to correct a single job posting. This means they can continue violating the law for every other job posting, only fixing issues if they get caught.
Moves to random, whack-a-mole enforcement
Corporations can easily avoid real consequences by tweaking one posting at a time while keeping the rest of their listings opaque. This makes systematic enforcement against bad actors virtually impossible.
Gives big businesses a win at the expense of workers.
This affects especially the most vulnerable workers. The largest corporations — many of whom are repeat offenders in violating pay transparency laws — can and will exploit this system.
In other words, this bill doesn't "fix" Washington's transparency law — it guts it.
Why would a Senate with a near supermajority of Democrats even consider putting greater burdens on workers just to make life easier for big corporations who flout the law? Why give corporations a free pass to violate the law and make it harder for them to get caught? Why move the burden of compliance away from those best positioned to address it (corporations)? Why move compliance monitoring away from those best positioned to address that (law enforcement)?
It is difficult to imagine a reason to put this burden on workers and decrease transparency — unless the bill was designed to reduce pay equity. In any case, that is what it will do. Here is how you can fight back:
Tell your senator to vote NO on SB 5408 — Call or email today. Let them know: Workers shouldn't have to police their own rights.
Spread the word — Share this op-ed, talk to friends, and get them to write to the senators too. Don't let them get away with gutting protection for workers.
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Ron Davis is an entrepreneur, policy wonk, and past candidate for Seattle City Council. He is focused on making his community a place where anyone can start a career, raise a family, and age in place without breaking the bank. He has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and lives in Northeast Seattle with his wife — a family physician — and their two boys.
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