Washington HB 2144 (Requiring notices to employees when electronic monitoring is used to assist employers conducting performance evaluations.)

• Authority: Washington
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2026-02-06

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses transparency and interpretability concerns (7.4) with good coverage through notification requirements about AI use in employee performance evaluations. It minimally addresses robustness concerns (7.3) through verification process disclosure requirements. The document does not substantially address other risk domains as it focuses narrowly on employee notification rather than broader AI risk mitigation.

Sector coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Information
• Finance & Insurance
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Professional & Technical Services
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Management, Administrative & Support Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
• Accommodation, Food & Other Services
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)
• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This legislation applies broadly to all employers across all economic sectors in Washington State, as it governs workplace electronic monitoring and AI use in employee performance evaluations. Coverage is uniform across sectors with no sector-specific provisions, though Public Administration and National Security are explicitly included through the definition of 'employer.'

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding state legislative act with explicit enforcement mechanisms, mandatory compliance language, designated enforcement authority (Department of Labor and Industries), and specific civil penalties ranging from $100 to $5,000 for violations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: This is a legislative act enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington, as indicated in the document header.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document explicitly targets employers who use electronic monitoring including artificial intelligence to assist in conducting performance evaluations of employees. This includes private and public sector employers.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Department of Labor and Industries is explicitly designated as the enforcement authority with powers to investigate complaints, issue citations, assess penalties, and conduct administrative proceedings.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Department of Labor and Industries is tasked with monitoring compliance through complaint investigation, record inspection, and self-audit requests to employers.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle. It focuses on notification requirements when employers implement or use electronic monitoring including AI systems for performance evaluations, and ongoing operation of these systems in workplace settings.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and addresses artificial intelligence as machine learning systems used for performance evaluation purposes. It also covers electronic monitoring systems more broadly. There is no mention of frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, compute thresholds, or open-source models.