Silenced No More Act in Washington: Void NDAs, Retaliation, Remedies

Washington’s Silenced No More Act, codified at RCW 49.44.211, makes it illegal for an employer to use a nondisclosure or non-disparagement clause to keep you from talking about discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, or sexual assault at work. The law took effect June 9, 2022, voids offending clauses automatically, and lets you sue for at least $10,000 plus attorney fees.¹ It covers employees, former employees, job applicants, and independent contractors, and it reaches backward into agreements you signed years ago.

Which Agreements Are Void

Any agreement between an employer and a worker that prevents disclosing or discussing covered workplace conduct is void and unenforceable. That includes hiring paperwork, ongoing employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, and settlement releases.¹ The date on the signature line and the specific wording of the clause do not matter. If the effect is to silence you about covered conduct, the clause is dead.

Asking you to sign one of these agreements is itself a violation. So is threatening to enforce a clause you already signed, or pressuring you to comply with it. The employer does not have to win in court, or even go to court, to be liable.

What You Can Talk About

You can discuss any behavior you reasonably believe falls into one of five categories, plus a catch-all:

Illegal discrimination based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected class under state or federal law
Illegal harassment, including but not limited to sexual harassment
Illegal retaliation for reporting concerns, filing complaints, or participating in investigations
Wage and hour violations, such as unpaid overtime, withheld commissions, or misclassification
Sexual assault, whether by a coworker, supervisor, or the employer

The statute also protects disclosures about conduct “recognized as against a clear mandate of public policy,” which leaves room for courts to apply the law to serious misconduct outside the named categories.¹

You only need a reasonable belief that the conduct fits. No prior court ruling or agency finding is required. If a reasonable person in your position would view what happened as illegal discrimination or a wage violation, you can speak about it even if the underlying claim is never proven.

Where the Conduct Happened

Location does not limit your right to talk. The statute covers conduct at the workplace, at employer-coordinated events, between employees wherever they are, and between an employer and employee on or off business premises. A holiday party, a work trip, or a late-night text message from a manager all fall within scope.

Who the Law Protects

“Employee” is defined broadly. It covers current employees, former employees, prospective employees, and independent contractors.¹

Former employees can discuss their past experiences regardless of what they signed on the way out. Job applicants cannot be required to promise silence about a prior employer’s conduct as a condition of a new offer. Independent contractors, who are often left out of employment protections, get the same shield here. If you perform work for a Washington employer in any capacity, this law applies to you.

Agreements You Already Signed

The law reaches backward. Nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses in employment agreements signed before June 9, 2022, are retroactively invalidated to the extent they restrict discussion of covered conduct. A confidentiality clause you signed as a new hire in 2015 cannot be used to silence you about harassment or wage theft you witnessed.

Settlement agreements are treated differently. Pre-2022 settlement agreements are not retroactively voided; if you negotiated a settlement with a confidentiality clause before the law took effect, that clause remains enforceable. Settlement agreements signed after June 9, 2022, are fully subject to the new rules.

Damages tied to retroactivity are also narrower. You can invoke the law to block enforcement of an old clause, but recovery in that scenario is capped at preventing enforcement rather than triggering the full $10,000 statutory penalty.

What an Employer Can Still Keep Private

The law does not erase all workplace confidentiality. Two carve-outs remain.

You and your employer can agree to keep the dollar amount of a settlement confidential. You stay free to discuss the underlying facts, the type of conduct, and who was involved. Only the payout figure can be locked down.

Employers can also protect trade secrets, proprietary information, and confidential business information that does not involve illegal acts.¹ A confidentiality agreement covering a client list, product formulas, or pricing strategy is still valid. What an employer cannot do is label evidence of wage theft or harassment as “proprietary” and use that label to shield it.

If Your Employer Retaliates

Firing you, demoting you, cutting your hours, reassigning you, or otherwise punishing you for discussing covered conduct is an independent violation of RCW 49.44.211. Some employers, once they realize the silence clause itself is unenforceable, shift to punishing the worker through other means. The statute treats that retaliation as its own trigger for liability, carrying the same penalties.

What You Can Recover

You can bring a civil action and recover the greater of your actual damages or $10,000 in statutory damages, plus reasonable attorney fees and costs.¹ The $10,000 floor means a violation is worth pursuing even when the direct financial harm is hard to quantify.

Because the clause itself is automatically void, you can ignore it. An employer who sues you to enforce a voided clause faces dismissal of that claim and a counterclaim for statutory damages.

Federal Rules That Also Help You

Trade Secret Whistleblower Immunity

The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act gives you immunity for disclosing a trade secret to a government official or an attorney for the purpose of reporting a suspected legal violation, or for filing the information under seal in a lawsuit. Employers are required to include notice of this immunity in any contract governing trade secrets or confidential information, and an employer that skips the notice loses the ability to recover enhanced damages and attorney fees in a trade secret misappropriation case against that worker.² This runs alongside Washington’s trade secret carve-out: even where state law would let an employer enforce trade secret confidentiality, federal law still protects your disclosure to the government or in sealed court filings when you’re reporting illegal activity.

Tax Penalty on Employers That Pair NDAs With Sexual Harassment Settlements

Under 26 U.S.C. § 162(q), an employer cannot deduct any settlement payment related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse if the payment is subject to a nondisclosure agreement. Attorney fees connected to that settlement are also non-deductible for the employer. The rule does not stop workers from deducting their own attorney fees where otherwise allowed.³ The IRS applies the rule to payments made after December 22, 2017.⁴ For a Washington employer, this stacks with state law: the silence clause is void under RCW 49.44.211, and the payment loses its deduction under federal tax law.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.44.211 – Prohibited Nondisclosure and Nondisparagement Provisions
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 Section 1833 – Exceptions to Prohibitions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 26 Section 162 – Trade or Business Expenses
4
Internal Revenue Service. Certain Payments Related to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Abuse