About five months after a Washington Supreme Court ruling granted dairy workers overtime pay for the first time, a proposed state law stemming from the same ruling may extend the pay protections to farmers in general.  SB 5172 would phase in overtime benefits for agricultural workers over the n... (Read More)

As part of the latest economic rescue plan to buoy the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress approved a $3 billion payroll support program for the aviation manufacturing industry. The Puget Sound Business Journal outlined how the six-month federal grant is designed to help large and mid-... (Read More)

A Seattle judge has given the go ahead for a gig worker hazard pay lawsuit to proceed against the City of Seattle. Filed by app-based food delivery service Instacart and the Washington Food Industry Association (WFIA), the lawsuit targets legislation the Seattle city council passed last summer a... (Read More)

Wage theft is more common than you think, often because employers cover their tracks in subtle ways. That seems to be the case with Penhall Company, a contractor on the Sound Transit East Link Extension rail project, accused of underpaying 37 workers hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages and b... (Read More)

Momentum toward inviting Seattle-area employees back to the office after more than a year of remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic is building with Microsoft’s recent decision to allow its 57,000 workers the option to return to campus on March 29. While Microsoft has been admitting a smal... (Read More)

Rising to the top of the legal profession is daunting for any lawyer, but particularly so for women in the hyper-competitive world of law whose upper echelons have long been guarded by powerful men.  Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, who joined the Washington State Supreme Court in 1992 and became C... (Read More)

On April 25, 1973, Seattle attorney Barbara T. Yanick was sworn in as the first female judge on the Seattle Municipal Court. Her 17-year tenure on the court would inadvertently pave the way for the second woman to join to the bench, according to John Caldbick at HistoryLink. Born in Grosse Pointe... (Read More)

On March 14, 1911, Washington enacted the first workers’ compensation system in the country, alongside Kansas.  It was a new concept at the time, giving workers insurance benefits, including payment of lost wages and medical costs as well as protection from coercion by their employers in exch... (Read More)

Dick’s Drive-in is the latest Washington state business to face scrutiny for allegedly failing to comply with COVID-19 safety and health guidelines and pressuring employees to work after they were exposed to the virus. Five employees from the burger joint’s Capitol Hill and Queen Anne locatio... (Read More)

The latest economic stimulus package aimed at helping American workers struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic extends federal unemployment checks this year and waives up to more than $1,000 in taxes on jobless assistance you may have received in 2020.  The tax break amendment comes in response ... (Read More)