December 2021 | Issue 15
WA Cares Fund: Employer Update
News from Gov. Inslee and the Legislature
The Legislature and Gov. Inslee have announced plans to change and improve the WA Cares Fund during the 2022 legislative session, which is scheduled to conclude in March 2022. Per direction from the governor, ESD will not collect premiums from employers until April 2022 or until the Legislature gives further direction.
However, the existing law still directs employers to begin collecting premiums from their employees beginning Jan. 1. Each employer will need to decide whether they will implement the law as it stands or await legislative action.
We will update the WA Cares website as more information becomes available.
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Paid Leave: Are you ready for 2022?
New resources and numbers to use in the new year
Starting Jan. 1, 2022, you’ll want to be familiar with new numbers to use for your Paid Leave premium calculations and more. We have updated our downloadable resources, too, to help ensure you have the information you need.
Premium rate and social security wage cap: Starting Jan. 1, 2022, the premium rate is 0.6 percent of each employee’s gross wages, not including tips, up to the 2022 Social Security cap ($147,000). Use this rate for Quarter 1 of 2022.
The split of the employer and employee share of the premium rates will also change. If you have 50 or more employees, you will pay up to 26.78% of the total premiums and your employees will pay 73.22%. If you have fewer than 50 employees, you are not required to pay the employer portion of the premium, but still must collect employee premiums or pay employee premiums on their behalf.
Note: If you operate a voluntary plan, your calculations may be different.
Weekly benefit amount: If your employee takes leave, they can receive up to 90% of their typical weekly wage, up to the maximum weekly benefit amount. For 2022, this is $1,327 per week.
Premium resources for you
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Download our Employer Toolkit for more information on how to calculate premiums, how to report for Paid Leave and general information about the program. The guide also has a sample message you can send to employees about the new premium rate.
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Update the mandatory poster in your breakroom or share it with your employees electronically. It has information for your employees about their premiums, how we determine if they are eligible for Paid Leave benefits and the maximum weekly benefit amount they could receive.
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Our premiums calculator is up-to-date for 2022. You can use it to check the amount you need to remit for Paid Leave premiums. You’ll be responsible for the difference during quarterly reporting if you collect the wrong amount from employees.
Unemployment Insurance: What's new in EAMS?
Standard Occupational Classification codes
You might have noticed a new feature in Employer Account Management Services (EAMS) for Single Filers: You can now include Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes starting with your fourth quarter 2021 tax report.
Including SOC codes is currently optional, but all employers will be required to report SOC codes starting with your fourth quarter 2022 tax report. The feature will be available for bulk filers starting in fourth quarter 2022.
We recently uploaded an instructional video about including SOC codes. Check it out!
See our most up-to-date tax information for employers at esd.wa.gov/employer-taxes.
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