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Nine decades ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act that would forever change the nation’s workforce. The stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression led Congress to pass the Social Security Act in 1935.
The act, signed by Roosevelt on Aug. 15, 1935, directed states to provide unemployment benefits to workers who meet certain criteria.
While many proponents helped usher this act into place, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was monumental in shaping the legislation. Perkins was also the first woman U.S. cabinet member.
Unemployment benefits in Washington
Four years after the act passed, unemployment insurance came to Washington, where workers lined up for money to support themselves while they looked for work.
Back then, the maximum weekly payment was about $15. The average wage for workers in Washington was about $27 a week. That maximum weekly benefit is now $1,208.
In 1947, the state Legislature formally reorganized and renamed the agency responsible for administering unemployment benefits to — wait for it! — the Washington State Employment Security Department.
The agency’s current headquarters in Olympia was constructed at the state’s east capitol campus plaza in 1962. The previous headquarters was on Water Street in downtown Olympia.
Today, Employment Security has claims centers in Lacey and Spokane. Although staff are currently assigned to one of these two claims centers, most claims center staff work remotely across the state.
Over the decades since the Social Security Act was passed, we’ve grown and now manage Paid Family & Medical Leave benefits and labor market information. We also help to manage workforce services, collect premiums and process exemptions for the WA Cares Fund, and more.
In just 2025 alone, we helped pay $2.2 billion in unemployment benefits to over 250,000 claimants.
And this is just a small overview of our history, if you would like to learn more.
Happy Anniversary, Unemployment Insurance program!