Effective January 1, 2018, employers in Washington state will be required to provide their employees with paid sick leave. Below is some important information on the upcoming act and how to set up a compliant paid sick leave policy inside OnPay.
Important Washington Compliance Details
- Employees will accrue time off at a minimum rate of 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours the employee works. This does include part-time and seasonal workers
- Sick leave must be paid at the employee’s normal hourly rate
- Employers can place a 90-day hold before the employee can begin utilizing their accrued time off. On the 90th day, the employee is entitled to utilize this time.
- Employees are eligible to carry over 40 hours of unused sick time over to the following year
- Employers are allowed to provide employees with a more generous carryover and accrual policies if they would like, what is listed above are the minimum requirements.
Reasons Employees Can Use Sick Time
- To care for themselves or their family members
- When the employee’s workplace, or their child’s school/place of care, has been closed by a public official for any health-related reason.
- Absences that qualify for leave under the state’s Domestic Violence Leave Act.
Setting Up The Policy in OnPay
Calculation Information: The three levels shown above are identical because the employee accrual does not increase based on the length of their employment. The per hour accrual rate of 0.025 is determined by dividing 1 hour worked by 40 hours.
The bottom number of levels 1, 2, and 3 is the balance cap and its intention is to keep the employee from having more than a certain balance at any given time. Per Washington state law the employees must accrue for every hour worked. This means we would not want to set a balance cap for the employees, hence we use 99999 as the balance cap as it is an impossible balance to reach. Employees are limited to carry 40 hours each year, this carryover of hours will need to be performed manually when the plan renews.