As I noted earlier this week, the governor’s 2020 supplemental budget proposal assumes passage of SSB 5717. The bill, which was introduced in 2019, would restrict how certain food service, hospitality, and retail employers in the state may schedule their employees.

Under the bill, work schedules would have to be provided at least 14 days in advance, and changes to the schedule would require additional compensation to employees. Covered employers would not be allowed to schedule or require employees to work sooner than 10 hours after the end of their last shift. (If employees agree to do so, they would have to be paid time and a half.)

The bill is similar to Seattle’s scheduling ordinance (in effect since July 1, 2017), but SSB 5717 covers more employers and is more restrictive. SSB 5717 is also similar to HB 1491, which was also introduced last year. I previously created a side-by-side of HB 1491 and the Seattle ordinance—I’ve updated the table (at the bottom of this post) to compare the Seattle ordinance to SSB 5717 (which was substituted by the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee on Feb. 21, 2019).

Gov. Inslee’s budget proposal would appropriate $1.5 million to implement the bill. Of that, $1.24 million would come from the accident account and $219,000 would come from the medical aid account. Both accounts are workers’ compensation funds: The accident account is generally used for time loss and partial permanent disability payments and the medical aid account is generally used for medical and hospital expenses.