FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Patrick Connor, Washington State Director, patrick.connor@nfib.org, 
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org 

OLYMPIA, Wash., Feb. 11, 2025—Patrick Connor, state director for NFIB, the nation’s largest small business association, will testify against Senate Bill 5578 today before the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee, which starts at 10:30 a.m. 

A companion measure, House Bill 1764, will be heard by the House Committee on Labor & Workplace Standards, which begins its meeting at the same time. In written testimony submitted to that committee, Connor said, “Washington’s small businesses are still suffering the effects of long-COVID: ongoing workforce shortages, higher costs, lower revenue, job losses, business closures. In response, they’ve cut expenses to the bone, delayed capital improvements and equipment purchases, raised wages, reduced hours of operation to adjust to fewer workers, and reluctantly increased prices to their customers as a last resort. Legislation like HB 1764 and its companion make recovery near impossible.” 

According to the staff analysis of HB 1764, “it makes annual incremental increases to the minimum hourly wage rate, from $17.50 in 2026 to $25 in 2031; requires employers to provide each employee with at least 2.3 hours of paid vacation leave for every 40 hours worked; requires employers to provide each employee with at least five days of paid bereavement leave per calendar year; and allows the Department of Labor and Industries to issue a stop work order until an employer has paid the amounts owed to employees.” 

For a very brief primer on what the minimum wage is, who earns, and what it doesn’t do, click this web story, What Idaho Got Right About the Minimum Wage. As an update to that story, Californians rejected a ballot proposal to raise the minimum wage (Proposition 32) in November.  

Keep up with the latest Washington state small-business news at www.nfib.com or on X @NFIB_WA or on Facebook @NFIB.WA  

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For more than 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.  

NFIB Washington
111 – 21st Avenue Southwest
Olympia, WA 98501
360-786-8675
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Twitter: @NFIB_WA
Facebook: @NFIB.WA