Employment Security Department - Washington State

Employer Newsletter - May 2026

Washington State Employment Security Department sent this bulletin at 05/08/2026 05:00 PM PDT

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May 8, 2026/Issue 75

In this issue

You and your workers could qualify for Disaster Unemployment Assistance if you were affected by the December 2025 storms.
Paid Leave statements mailed this month.
New how-to videos available to help you use the Employer Account Management System.
Keep us updated about owner and officer changes.
Hire a military spouse!
Free webinar this month about SharedWork and Paid Leave.
County-level labor market information brought to you each month on video.

Timely news

Recovery funding for December 2025 storms and flooding now available

The Employment Security Department is working to administer disaster recovery funding for areas and workers impacted by floods and storms from Dec. 5 -19, 2025. Read details on the disaster unemployment assistance page of our website.

You might be eligible

If you were out of work or had to close your business for any time due to the December 2025 storms, you may be eligible for DUA — even if you are not covered by unemployment insurance.

Your employees might be eligible

If you had employees who lost work due to the storms and were previously denied unemployment benefits, they might be eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA). Please direct them to our website to learn who qualifies and how to apply.

You might be eligible for relief of benefit charges

If you have employees who collected unemployment benefits as a direct result of the December 2025 storms, you may qualify for relief of benefit charges. That means unemployment benefits paid to your workers during that time due to the flooding will not affect your unemployment tax rate.

Relief of benefit charges is available only to taxable employers. Learn more about benefit charges on our website.

If you think you qualify for relief of benefit charges, you need to send us a request in writing.

Please include:

Either your Benefit Charging Notice; your Quarterly Statement of Benefit Charges; or a list of employees' full names, claim ID numbers or last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
Explanation of when employees stopped working due to the disaster and when they returned to work.
Your contact information, including an email address and phone number.

Go to our website to learn how to submit this information and to read more about benefit charges.

You might be eligible for a penalty waiver

Did you file your Q4 2025 unemployment tax and wage report late or pay that quarter’s taxes late as a direct result of the December disaster? You may qualify for a penalty waiver.

You can request a waiver in four ways. Complete our online form, send an email to UIfiles@esd.wa.gov, fax to 800-794-7657, or mail to:

Employment Security Department
UI Tax and Wage Administration
P.O. Box 9046
Olympia WA 98507-9046

Please include:

A subject line that says: Waiver request.
Your name.
Phone number.
Business name.
Mailing address.
Employment Security number (ESD number).
Quarter and year you are requesting a waiver for.
Reason you believe you should not be charged penalties.
Your signature.

Disaster Recovery Worker Grants

Employment Security is also managing a federal grant to provide employment opportunities and reemployment support within the disaster areas. Read our news release about the first $1 million awarded in January.

Paid Family & Medical Leave

We will mail Paid Leave billing statements this month

Starting this month, Paid Leave will mail billing statements to employers and elective coverage customers with past-due premiums. This information will help you stay current with your reports and payments and avoid unnecessary costs when we start assessing late fees in August.

Starting Aug. 1, 2026:

We will apply a 1% monthly interest charge to overdue premium balances.

We will assess penalties on late reports:

First late report = warning notice.

Second late report = $75 penalty.

Third late report = $150 penalty.

Additional late reports = $250 penalty.

To ensure timely delivery of your statement, please log in to your employer account to:

Check that your business contact information is correct. You can make changes to this information at any time.

Review your premium reporting history and current balance. Reports are due every quarter, even if you do not have payroll.

Submit any missing reports or payments.

Unemployment Insurance

New how-to videos for EAMS available

We have uploaded new videos about how to use the Employer Account Management System (EAMS). Go to the quarterly reports page on the Employment Security website to watch videos about:

Setting up your EAMS account.
Adding an employer in EAMS.
Entering employee wage data in EAMS.

Go to the locked services page to watch the video about:

Requesting access to locked services.

You do not need locked services to file unemployment quarterly tax and wage reports or to pay taxes. But you need locked services to complete certain tasks online. Go to the locked services page to learn more.

Keep us updated about owner and officer changes
at your business

If any corporate officers or owners changed at your business, please let Employment Security know. Go to the forms page on our website to find the Owner/officer change form.

The form allows you to add new owners or officers and remove anyone who is no longer an owner or officer. Complete the form in the quarter the change occurs. It’s due at the same time as your unemployment quarterly tax and wage report.

You can send the completed form in one of three ways:

By email: UIfiles@esd.wa.gov.
By mail: ESD, Registration Unit, PO Box 9046, Olympia, WA 98507-9046.
By fax: 800-794-7657.

If you use a third-party administrator to report your taxes, make sure they have a current list of your exempt owners or officers. Examples of third-party administrators are bookkeepers, accountants and payroll companies.

Building your small business

You can help military families by hiring a military spouse

If the spouse of a military member is unemployed, their family stability and mental wellness decrease, says Olivia Burley, Washington’s military spouse liaison.

In honor of National Military Spouse Appreciation Month and the statewide Hire-a-Military-Spouse Month, May is an excellent time for employers to do what they can to employ military spouses.

You can:

Embrace remote work, flexible schedules and hiring initiatives tailored to military spouses.
Let your military spouse employees know they may be eligible for unemployment benefits if they need to move out of Washington because of a change of duty station. They don’t always know this.
Be forgiving when hiring military spouses. Their resumes may show gaps of employment due to mandatory moves to new duty stations.

Learn more:

Learn how SharedWork and Paid Leave can help your business

The Greater Federal Way Chamber of Commerce and the Employment Security Department invite you to a free, live webinar 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday, May 21.

Learn how both the SharedWork and Paid Family & Medical Leave programs help you keep your skilled employees and even prevent layoffs. Business leaders like you will get practical insights to:

Strengthen your operations.
Make your business more resilient.
Navigate shifting economic conditions with confidence.

Register on Eventbrite

This free webinar will take place on Zoom. When you register, you will get a confirmation email with connection instructions.

More Labor Market Minutes!

Employment Security is excited to announce that we expanded our monthly video series, the Labor Market Minute. Each month, we are adding a second Labor Market Minute to our lineup. This new video will feature a regional labor economist highlighting employment and unemployment data from their region.

Each month, we will share both Labor Market Minute videos on our social media channels. Watch this month’s Labor Market Minute on YouTube. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to get the latest!

Learn more about your region and the regional labor economists on our website.

Find our contact information

Any time you need to respond to a notice from Employment Security, please use the phone number on that notice to reach the right team. If you do not contact the right team, we are not able to forward your call. Instead, we will give you the correct number to call.

If you have other questions related to unemployment taxes or benefits, about Paid Leave or WA Cares reporting, SharedWork and more, reach out! Find contact information by topic on the Employment Security website.