In November, Attorney General Nick Brown announced the creation of a new Workers’ Rights Unit to expand enforcement of wage theft, discrimination, worker misclassification, and other labor standards. In addition, the AGO is circulating draft legislation to broaden its investigative tools through Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs), a pre-litigation authority widely used in other states.
The proposal would extend CID authority to investigations involving prevailing wage on public works, the Washington Law Against Discrimination, select law-enforcement accountability statutes, and wage-and-hour laws such as the Minimum Wage Act and Wage Payment Act. Today, the AGO has CID-like authority only in narrower areas such as consumer protection, Medicaid fraud, and charitable trusts.
In many states, CID authority allows attorneys general to gather facts before filing a lawsuit, often resulting in investigations being resolved informally, closed without action, or corrected without litigation. This can reduce legal costs, risk exposure, and uncertainty for employers. However, the current Washington draft contains very broad document-demand and investigative authorities.
WR is working with the business community to seek guardrails around the expanded CID authority to better align with national standards that include relevance, proportionality, and undue-burden limitations. Such guardrails help ensure that the tool is effective for enforcement while also protecting respondents’ due-process rights.
A remaining question is whether these initiatives will require additional funding. Senate Ways & Means Chair Sen. June Robinson has stated publicly that no new funding is likely to move through her committee this session.
