From start to finish, caregivers did not back down during the 2026 Washington Legislative session. We faced difficult odds and threats of devastating cuts to long-term care – and we showed up in force. We held rallies in Olympia, Spokane, Yakima, and Bellingham, we turned the Capitol purple during three Purple Presences, and we spoke out for tax equality, domestic workers’ rights, protecting healthcare for immigrants, and more.
SEIU 775 members flooded lawmakers’ phone lines, sent thousands of emails, and testified at numerous hearings to make sure decision makers couldn’t ignore our voices and priorities.
Because of all our hard work, we can celebrate historic wins for caregivers. Together, we:
- Stopped care from being cut to more than 6,000 long-term care clients. Because of such strong leadership by caregivers, Washington State is stepping in to protect thousands of people who would have lost the long-term care and healthcare that they depend on.
- Brought our State’s tax system a step closer to being fairer for working people by passing the Millionaires Tax. In addition to generating billions of dollars for critical services, this bill ends sales tax on diapers and over-the-counter medicines, along with expanding the Working Families Tax Credit.
- Unanimously passed legislation to ensure equal pay and benefits for Agency Providers.
- Working in solidarity, we helped pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and Immigrant Worker Protection Act.
- Won key funding and policy changes to make housing and utilities more affordable for people across our state.
We didn’t win everything. We still have tough battles ahead to protect care for immigrants who are under attack by federal politicians. We will continue fighting to hold Nursing Homes and Supported Living facilities accountable to pay workers a fair wage. We will link arms and elect politicians who support caregivers – and un-elect those who don’t.
We are stronger than these attacks. We are stronger together.
Everything we won is proof that our voices are powerful – that even in a difficult year, we can make real progress right here in Washington State. It’s true that there are still tough fights on the horizon. That’s why it’s more important than ever that we celebrate, we hold these wins close, and we keep fighting.
Our Goal: Stop the cuts – Protect long-term care, healthcare, food programs, and vital community services from cuts
The final budget funds long-term care and healthcare for 1,191 immigrants who would have otherwise lost it because of the cruel federal Medicaid cuts in HR 1. We created a path to fund the remaining 1,509 people who could lose care and will continue to advocate for this funding. We also stopped a long-term care eligibility reduction proposal included in the Governor’s budget, protecting an additional 5,000 clients from losing long-term care.
Our Goal: Make caregiving a good career
Ensure equal pay and benefits for Home Care Agency providers: The Agency Parity Update bill, which ensures equal pay and benefits for Home Care Agency Providers, passed the legislature unanimously. Whether home care providers are employed by CDWA or by an agency, we deserve to make equal pay for the same work and access to the same training and healthcare benefits.
Invest in the Nursing Home workforce: Funding for Nursing Homes, known as the rebase, will go forward in 2026, as scheduled. We’ll continue fighting for much-needed language that guarantees what percentage of this funding goes directly to Nursing Home workers’ wages and benefits.
Ended unnecessary Supported Living restrictions: We were able to end the Community Protection Program, which was overly restrictive and made people in Supported Living sign away their rights to freedom of movement and privacy just to receive the care they need. The CPP even prevented Supported Living caregivers from joining our Union because it misclassifies us as “guards.”
Our Goal: Tax the ultra-wealthy to fix our upside-down tax system
Make millionaires pay their share: The legislature passed the historic Millionaires Tax, bringing our state one step closer to a tax system that is fairer for working people. By winning the Millionaires Tax, we won:
- Billions of dollars to invest in healthcare, long-term care, education, and other critical public services.
- The end of the sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter medicine, hygiene, and grooming products.
- Expansion of the Working Families Tax Credit.
- Historic tax relief for our State’s small businesses.
- Free school lunch and breakfast for all Washington students.
- 5% of revenue dedicated toward childcare and early learning programs.
Our Goal: Promote economic justice, affordability, and protections for working people
- Immigrant Justice: We won protections for workers who are immigrants by requiring employers to notify workers of I-9 audits and limiting voluntary sharing of worker records with DHS and ICE without a warrant or subpoena. We also won a ban on law enforcement officers, including ICE and Federal agents, illegally covering their faces. Our communities are less safe with masked people disappearing our neighbors, and this new law is intended to make sure people cannot hide their identity while conducting law enforcement activities to ensure accountability and transparency for any civil rights violations.
- Workers’ rights: After years of fighting for it, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was passed, bringing essential labor protections for nannies, house cleaners, gardeners, and other domestic workers, including a minimum wage, the right to keep personal identification and documents, anti-discrimination protection, and tools to enforce these rights. These are basic labor protections that domestic workers have been excluded from for far too long. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) trigger law also passed, which would protect collective bargaining rights and protections for workers if the NLRB no longer covers them.
- Making utilities affordable: We passed House Bill 1903 creates a new utility program that will provide monthly utility bill discounts and credits to help with rising energy costs. We also expanded the State Home Energy Assistance Program, nearly doubling the size, which will get one-time help with energy assistance, like heating and cooling bills, to more households.
- Safe housing we can afford: Historic $200M investments in building affordable housing were included in the budget, along with reducing barriers to building affordable housing and increasing resources and funding flexibility for low-income and affordable housing projects.
- Expanded the Working Families Tax Credit to over 1.3M Washingtonians: Funded by some of the money raised through the Millionaires Tax, this tax credit will now be available to people over 18 (expanded from only covering people 25-65) and it raises the income limit that qualifies for this tax credit, which means money back on taxes will be available for many more people who deserve this cash support.
- Promote public and community safety: Keeping our communities safer by allowing the Attorney General to investigate law enforcement misconduct, limiting the sharing of automatic license plate reader data, and expanding eligibility requirements for elected sheriffs and police chiefs.
What we’re still fighting for
- Apple Health expansion: 5,000 new people can be added to Apple Health Expansion caseload, but this still leaves tens of thousands of immigrants without access to healthcare coverage simply because of where they were born. We will continue to fight for everyone who needs care to be covered.
- Mandatory Nursing Home workforce investments: We will continue to push lawmakers to hold Nursing Home companies accountable. We need a policy that ensures at least 60% of revenue is spent on wages and benefits for workers providing care and support to residents, not the Nursing Home CEOs and executives profiting from our hard work.
- Supported Living rates and wage transparency: Supported Living professionals deserve transparency in how rate increases we win at the legislature become the wages and benefits we deserve.
- Pay parents of kids with developmental disabilities: Currently, only parents of children over the age of 18 can be paid caregivers for our Medicaid-eligible children. The legislature needs to correct this glaring injustice by allowing parents of Medicaid eligible children under the age of 18 to be paid caregivers.
- Allow spouses to provide pay care to their loved one: We need a change in the law to allow spouses to be trained and paid for the caregiving and support they already provide for their loved ones.
