2020 Regular Session

BySenators Keiser, Conway, Wellman, Saldaña, Stanford, Nguyen, and Wilson, C.

Read first time 01/15/20.Referred to Committee on Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation.

AN ACT Relating to a report of employers with employees receiving certain public assistance programs; adding a new section to chapter 49.46 RCW; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that public benefit programs are essential to provide Washingtonians with access to fresh healthy food, quality health coverage, basic needs, cash assistance, child care, and income supports, among other benefits. When low wages and a lack of benefits leave workers unable to make ends meet, they turn to public assistance programs for health care, food, and other basic necessities. Employers that pay low wages and offer insufficient benefits shift the costs of doing business onto taxpayers. For example, more than sixty percent of enrollees in medicaid and community health improvement plans nationwide belong to working families, meaning that the taxpayers bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work. Such employers put responsible employers at a competitive disadvantage, creating an unfair playing field for business in Washington state.

To promote a deeper understanding of the causes and sources of underemployment, poverty wages, and the economic impacts on our society, business, and the state budget, the legislature needs to possess a broader set of empirical data with which to make informed decisions to protect workers and strengthen the economy.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 49.46 RCW to read as follows:

In its annual briefing book, the department of social and health services economic services administration must include a report on the fifty employers with the highest number of employees who receive public assistance in each of the following programs:

(1) The basic food program;

(2) The WorkFirst temporary assistance for needy families program; and

(3) The working connections child care program.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act may be known and cited as the fair share employer disclosure act.