On July 31, 2025, the National Women’s Law Center joined an amicus brief led by the ACLU of Washington and the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice to the Supreme Court of the State of Washington in AssureCare Adult Home v. Bolina. The brief urges the court to strike down the exclusion of live-in caregivers from the protections of Washington State’s Minimum Wage Act (MWA). The National Domestic Workers Alliance, Pilipino Workers Center, and National Employment Law Project also joined the amicus brief.

Our brief argues that the exclusion of live-in care workers from the MWA replicates not only the text but also the racist and sexist history of the identical provision enacted at the federal level in 1938. In the federal law, Congress excluded agricultural and domestic workers—two industries that primarily employed Black people—from minimum wage and overtime protections established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). We also argue that no reasonable grounds exist for excluding in-home caregivers from these protections, and that this exclusion warrants heightened scrutiny under Washington’s constitution because it disparately impacts politically powerless and marginalized groups.