Washington passed many new employment and wage and hour laws in 2025, with some taking effect July, 2025, and more taking effect January 1st 2026. This post summarizes five major changes in Washington State employment law: 

Washington’s Mini-WARN Act 
Expanded personnel file access rights,  
Pay transparency amendments,  
Prevailing wage updates  
Expanded Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) rules

Here are some of the major employment law and unpaid wage announcements and settlements for October, November, and December 2025. 

In October 2025, the California Attorney General’s Office announced a $10 million judgement for workers misclassified as independent contractors in California.  Over in New Jersey, state officials are alleging that Amazon also has an issue with improper classification of employees, claiming Amazon has delivery drivers classified as independent contractors that should be receiving normal wages and benefits as employees.   

In November 2025, the NCAA agreed to settle a class action regarding more than 7,000 volunteer college coaches alleging wage fixing for $303 million.  Also in November, the nations largest coffee chain announced a $39M New York city labor settlement for allegations of local rules between 2021 and 2024. The D.C. Attorney General also announced $725,000 for a construction company allegedly failing to pay “prevailing wages”. Beyond misclassification, California has also recently worked to generate settlements for workers for a broad variety of issues:  No-poach agreements where companies collude to not hire each other workers and suppress wages and salaries, worker loan repayments, and additional misclassification by employers.   

In December 2025, The New York Attorney General settles allegations of underpayment to home health aides under the New York Wage Parity Law, resulting in $45 million to home health aid workers in the state, and the D.C. Attorney General announces a $1.5 settlement with a construction company regarding allegations their subcontractors misclassified hundreds of workers. 

As of January 1st 2026, Nineteen states will welcome new minimum wages for (most) workers.  While the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, the majority of workers in the United States fall under additional minimum wages supplied by their state, county or city. These are the new minimum wages that go into effect January 1st, 2026: