Notice of Committee Passage for Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5355

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ESSB 5355, titled AN ACT Relating to establishing wage liens, has been passed by the House Committee on Labor & Workplace Standards. The Office of Financial Management has identified this bill as requiring a ten-year projection of increased cost to the taxpayers or affected fee payers.

Ten-year projection:

Department of Licensing:

Indeterminate impact to cash receipts.

This bill would allow wage liens to be filed through the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) program within DOL and placed on personal and titled property, such as vehicles and vessels. The UCC charges $30 for a paper filing and $23 for an online filing, however, it is not known how many wage liens would be filed with the program.

Based on data provided by the Labor and Industries for FY 2020, the employment standards program resolved 5,413 wage claims and for FY 2019, 5,458 wage claims. It is uncertain that these wage claims would result one to one into wage liens, and those that do result in wage liens would be split between personal property claims through DOL and real property claims through county auditors.

Assuming all wage claims become wage liens, and all wage liens are placed on personal property using paper filings with UCC, the annual revenue would not exceed $164,000. This represents the upper bound of potential revenue based on current data, realized revenue impacts are expected to be significantly lower.

ESSB 5355 compared to SSB 5355: ESSB 5355 clarifies that if a wage claim is or would be subject to a construction lien, this bill’s wage lien process does not apply. 

This change will not have a fiscal impact to DOL as we are indeterminate for any cash receipts related to filing fees. 

Assumptions:

5,458 x $30 = $163,740

Note: FY 2019 number of cases was used as it more represents a standard number of wage complaint cases for the year.

Ten-year projection prepared in consultation with the following agencies:

Department of Licensing
Department of Commerce

The following legislators voted do pass:

Representative Mike Sells
Democrat
(360) 255-0152
mike.sells@leg.wa.gov

Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self
Democrat
(360) 786-7972
lillian.ortiz-self@leg.wa.gov

Representative Dan Bronoske
Democrat
(360) 786-7958
Dan.Bronoske@leg.wa.gov

Representative Liz Berry
Democrat
(206) 709-5260
Liz.Berry@leg.wa.gov


The following legislators voted do not pass:

Representative Paul Harris
Republican
(360) 786-7976
Paul.Harris@leg.wa.gov

Representative Gina Mosbrucker
Republican
(360) 786-7856
gina.mosbrucker@leg.wa.gov

Representative Larry Hoff
Republican
(360) 786-7812
HOFF_LA@leg.wa.gov



Legislative Bill Information Website: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/

Initiative 960 Website: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/tax/default.asp