Washington cosmetologists will be rejoicing today as a bill that could've harmed their livelihood has been pulled and is dead on arrival in the Washington State Senate.

The controversial SB 5326 bill would've made it illegal for salons to rent their extra booths to independent stylists and contractors.

The bill proposed by Senator Keiser wanted to make it illegal for a salon owner to lease out extra booth spaces to independent stylists and that any stylists in a salon would be considered an employee of the salon, hence raising taxes on several thousand salons across the state of Washington.

Word has just come down that the bill was dropped and is being pulled from consideration by Senator Keiser herself. She released a statement to why the bill is being shuttered.

"I heard your concerns, we are not moving forward"

“Thank you to everyone from across the state who have reached out to us in Olympia. I heard from hundreds of hairdressers who feared Senate Bill 5326 was a threat to their chosen profession. I want to be clear that it was never my intent to cause stress and anxiety to salon workers, much less jeopardize their livelihood. This entire process was an example of how democracy works best.

The outcry of thousands has stopped the bill in its tracks and some say it was a poorly written bill as it targeted salons primarily owned by women but ignored barber shops owned by men.

It's good to see that democracy does work as this would've been a bad bill for small business owners in the Northwest. You can read more about the dismissal of the bill here.  

 

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