Any employer and any officer, vice principal or agent of any employer who shall violate any of the provisions of RCW 49.52.050 (1) and (2) shall be liable in a civil action by the aggrieved employee or his or her assignee to judgment for twice the amount of the wages unlawfully rebated or withheld by way of exemplary damages, together with costs of suit and a reasonable sum for attorney's fees: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That the benefits of this section shall not be available to any employee who has knowingly submitted to such violations.
RCW 49.52.070
Civil liability for double damages.
Applied in 147 court decisions — leading case Hemmings v. Tidyman's Inc. (2002)
Most recently applied in Dep't of Lab. & Indus. v. Cannabis Green, LLC (May 2025)
2010 c 8 s 12056; 1939 c 195 s 3; RRS s 7612-23.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.