by Aspen Ford, Washington State Standard
July 16, 2026
Over half of farmworker wage complaints Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries received last year went unresolved past a 60-day statutory limit, according to a new report.
The preliminary findings presented by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee indicate that the department’s investigative units are severely understaffed, contributing to backlogs.
For wage complaints, agency staff have the capacity to resolve 5,000 claims a year. The total number received last year was over 9,000 across all industries, the report found.
In 2022, the state Legislature ordered the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to conduct three studies addressing farmworker needs. The final and most recent study examines how well the state enforces labor laws for farmworkers submitting claims.
Many violations in the agricultural sector likely go unreported because farmworkers are less likely to submit claims to the state, the Department of Labor and Industries and other stakeholders told the report authors.
Workers might fear being “blacklisted, retaliated against or just don’t want to cause problems with work peers,” said Enrique Gastelum, chief executive officer of the Worker and Farmer Labor Association, a group representing family farms and seasonal agriculture employers.
“The word ‘government’ sounds serious,” he added. “‘Do I really want to interact with them and share with them what I think I’m going through?’”
The community relations program at Labor and Industries is working to reduce filing barriers by meeting with workers and employers at community events and providing language assistance and a hotline number to answer questions. The program also offers grants to organizations that help underserved workers gain access to services.
“Starting in February and March, we meet with (Labor and Industries) monthly and try and encourage our employers to invite the L&I community outreach folks out there to talk with, you know, the H-2A workers on the farms,” Gastelum said. “So then you do get people feeling like they can speak up more.”
From 2019 to 2025, only 11% of farmworker wage complaints resulted in an employer violation, the report found. For one of every four, the employer paid the farmworker before the agency determined if a violation occurred.
In 2025, the agency requested and received $4.1 million from the state operating budget to hire more staff.
Since then, it has added six new staff members to investigate wage complaints, bringing the total number of investigators to 31. The department is recruiting for one more position, said Matt Ross, public affairs manager.
In 2024, there were only two staffers in a unit that investigates allegations of employers retaliating after workers assert their right to minimum wage. The agency has hired three additional investigators for that unit and is looking to hire two more.
“We’re working hard to expand capacity,” Ross said. “JLARC’s report points to capacity challenges that we knew about and have taken several steps to address.”
The agency also underwent a reorganization and began a prioritization system for complaints after a new law took effect in June.
In 2023, Labor and Industries launched its agriculture-focused health and safety unit amid a rise of temporary agriculture workers in Washington. The unit averages 328 inspections a year, checking field sanitation, pesticide handling and machine and equipment safety practices.
The agricultural unit fell just short of its goal to double farm inspections after it launched, the report found, because the unit has never had a fully staffed, fully trained team.
Agricultural inspectors take two years to fully train, the department told the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee.
The report found an additional limitation in the state’s agricultural labor statute, which requires Labor and Industries to resolve meal and break complaints through the county court system. The agency doesn’t do this often because it’s time-intensive and expensive.
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee recommended that Labor and Industries report its efforts to address the backlog and its implementation of two new labor laws to the state Legislature and the committee in December this year and December 2027.
The final report is due out in September.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected].