As of January 1, 2023, the premiums will increase for Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program. The premium rate will be 0.8 percent (up from 0.6 percent) of each employee’s gross wages (not including tips), up to a maximum of $160,200 (the 2023 Social Security cap). The split between employers…
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Question: Our company is located in Oregon, and we have an employee who works in person two days a week at our facility in Portland. The employee teleworks the rest of the week from their residence in Vancouver, Washington. Should we report their wages to the paid family and medical…
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Governor Jay Inslee ended the COVID-19 public health emergency for the state of Washington on October 31, 2022, but employers still have some obligations under state law. As we previously reported, the continuing requirements for COVID-19 (coronavirus) stem from Washington’s Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELSA) and from an ongoing obligation to…
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The Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) published new rules last week for implementation of the WA Cares Fund, Washington’s new long-term care insurance program. Washington employers will remember that this fund was hastily “paused” by Governor Jay Inslee and the legislature in January, and then modified in the 2022 legislative session to delay the…
Read More…The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) has issued revisions to its unified fall protection rules, which take effect on November 1, 2022. The unified rules, originally published in 2020 (and reported here), merged all industry fall protection standards and aligned them with federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.…
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The state of Washington has announced increases in the minimum wage rate and the exempt salary thresholds for employees, effective January 1, 2023. These increases impact several state wage requirements that you’ll want to be aware of if you have employees in Washington. The cities of Seattle and SeaTac also have…
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Governor Jay Inslee has announced that he will end Washington’s declared public health emergency (PHE) due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) on October 31, 2022. As he previously announced, 12 health care related orders will end on October 27. The remaining COVID-19 emergency proclamations, including the state of emergency, will be rescinded at the…
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On August 4, 2022, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) filed an emergency workplace safety rule to extend and slightly modify COVID-19 (coronavirus) reporting, notification, and personal protective equipment requirements. The new rule took effect immediately and expires on December 2, 2022. (We reported on the prior rule here, which expired on August 4,…
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On June 1, 2022, emergency regulations for outdoor heat exposure and wildfire smoke were released. This Alert summarizes both sets of regulations, which take effect on June 15, 2022. WASHINGTON: L&I issues emergency rules for outdoor heat Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) has released emergency requirements to protect workers from outdoor heat…
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On May 20, 2022, Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) and Department of Health (DOH) made yet another update to the emergency COVID-19 (coronavirus) safety rules for temporary worker housing (TWH) in the agriculture industry. The rules took effect immediately. Here are the important changes: Education on exposure and testing positive: The previous version of the rules required…
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