Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave

Overview

Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (Washington Paid Leave) provides eligible employees with partial wage replacement and, for larger employers, job protection during a qualifying family or medical leave.

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

Policy Status Decisions

This policy is administered by the state unless the employer has an approved plan to administer on their own.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for benefits.

📝 Configuration Note: Employers have the option to coordinate WA-PFML-JP policy with federal FMLA and not WA-PFML. Coordinating WA-PFML-JP with FMLA when an employee is not receiving WA-PFML benefits is not fully supported in the platform and may require additional client configuration changes. See Legislative Guidance for Employer Responsibilities for details.

How to Use

Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:

✅ Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed

📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform

💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere

How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law

AbsenceSoft manages this law through 2 policies.

• Policy Name - Washington Paid Leave

• Policy Code - WA-PFML

• Benefit Type - Paid Leave

• Policy Name - Washington Paid Leave - Job Protection

• Policy Code - WA-PFML-JP

• Benefit Type - Job Protection

Administration Options

Washington Paid Leave can be administered through:

• State Plan (default)- administered by the Employment Security Department (ESD)

• Private Plans (fully or self-insured) - Requires custom policies

💡 Best Practice: Employers with a private plan should customize the existing policy to meet their state approved requirements and change the policy type to Company to show the policy is owned by the employer.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Coverage Threshold Amounts

✅ Automatic: System handles 25 employees in the state of Washington automatically.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility for employees where coverage thresholds may not align with information sent on the employee demographic file.

Excluded Employers

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Excluded employers are not covered under the law and may need to disable the policy in the platform to keep it from rendering. Discuss decisions with legal counsel for best approach.

Employee Eligibility

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

This policy is a state paid leave program that may have eligibility criteria tied to wages/earnings that are not available in the platform. Employers should follow the state's determination for the wage replacement policy.

Job protection under WA-PFML-JP is determined by the employer and may be tied to the employee receiving wages.

📝 Configuration Note: WA-PFML-JP policy measures 180 calendar days using minimum length of service which can take into account various hire and rehire dates. Employers should ensure the employee has 180 days of service prior to their leave beginning for any recent rehire.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the most recent rehire date shows the employee has not yet met 180 calendar days of service for WA-PFML-JP.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for eligibility.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the state determines the employee has not met the eligibility requirements necessary for paid benefits.

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility for excluded employees or for those who have not opted into the program by changing eligibility from pass to fail.

Highly Paid Employee Exception

📝 Configuration Note: Washington's job protection law allows employers to deny restoration to highly paid employees (the top 10% of earners within 75 miles of the worksite) under specific conditions. AbsenceSoft does not have a highly-paid-employee identifier for this purpose.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Employers wishing to apply the highly-paid-employee exception must review and document eligibility for this exception, and may also need to update an existing communication or create a communication template for this nuance.

Qualifying Family Members

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Special Family Relationship Requirements

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not have a relationship option for De Facto Parent. Users should select Legal Ward in place of this relationship for a child, or Legal Guardian in place of this relationship for a parent.

📝 Configuration Note: For any relationship carrying an expectation of care between household members that does not otherwise map to a supported relationship, AbsenceSoft uses Individual Dependent on Employee for Care.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Entitlement Overview

WA-PFML and WA-PFML-JP entitlements vary by absence reason, with a combined entitlement of 16 work weeks (or 18 weeks if pregnancy complications occur), in a 52 week Sunday forward period across all absence reasons.

• Medical Leave (Employee Health Condition, Pregnancy/Maternity)

  • up to 12 weeks in a 52 week Sunday forward period for Employee Health Condition and Pregnancy/Maternity where no complications exist;

  • up to 14 weeks in a 52 week Sunday forward period if pregnancy where Complications = Yes;

  • does not share entitlement with Family Leave absence reasons

• Family Leave (Bonding, Adoption/Foster Care, Family Health Condition, Qualifying Exigency, Bereavement)

  • Up to 12 weeks in a 52 week Sunday forward period;

  • Bereavement is limited to 1 work week per case;

  • does not share entitlement with Medical Leave absence reasons

• Combined maximum

  • Up to 16 work weeks in a 52 week Sunday forward period across all absence reasons (if no pregnancy complications exist)

  • Up to 18 work weeks in a 52 week Sunday forward period across all absence reasons (if pregnancy complications = Yes)

✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically tracks the 16-week (or 18-week, for pregnancy with complications) combined entitlement across both absence reason categories when Medical Complications for Pregnancy/Maternity absence reason is selected at intake.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Failure to select Medical Complications at intake for Pregnancy/Maternity will require employers to override exhaustion. Employers using the state-administered program should follow the state's determination for how the combined entitlement is applied.

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is configured to end 12 months following the placement date which will not take into account preplacement activities start date.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Follow the state’s determination for preplacement activity timing limitations.

Family Caregiver Leave/Bereavement

📝 Configuration Note: Washington law describes the Bereavement entitlement in calendar days; AbsenceSoft configures Bereavement as 1 work week per case since the platform cannot enforce a calendar-day stipulation separately from the policy's work-week measurement period.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Case managers will need to review and override where necessary to confirm the employee is eligible for bereavement, since Bereavement is only available when the employee has experienced pregnancy or child loss.

💡 Best Practice: Close out any open Pregnancy/Maternity, Bonding, or Adoption/Foster Care cases before opening a Bereavement event.

Qualifying Exigency Stipulations

• Short Notice Deployment - 7 days

• Rest and Recuperation - 14 days

📝 Configuration Note: Qualifying Exigency is one absence reason but does not enforce different amounts of entitlement depending on the qualifying exigency event.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for benefits.

Pregnancy and Bonding Cases

Pregnancy (from the Medical Leave pool) and Bonding (from the Family Leave pool) have separate, non-shared allocations.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If Bonding is requested in association with a Pregnancy/Maternity case, the bonding portion must be submitted as a separate case with a Bonding absence reason so entitlement is calculated properly.

✅ Automatic: A workflow generates a to-do upon creation of a pregnancy/maternity case in work state Washington reminding the user to create a separate bonding case if applicable.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: When the Bonding case is created immediately following a Pregnancy case, eligibility may need to be overridden to match the eligibility status as of the start of the pregnancy case.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: When bonding leave follows a complicated pregnancy that received the extended 18-week combined cap, manually override exhaustion on the bonding case to provide the additional 2 weeks (standard bonding entitlement of 12 weeks overridden to 14 weeks), since pregnancy and bonding are managed as separate cases and the system cannot automatically recognize that the prior case should extend the cap.

💡 Best Practice: Create the bonding case without delay to ensure it is not missed, and communicate this requirement clearly to employees requesting both pregnancy and bonding leave.

How Leave Can Be Taken

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not enforce the state's 4-hour minimum claim increment for intermittent leave or reduced schedule leave payments.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Track the 4-hour minimum increment for intermittent leave and reduced schedule leave manually. Employers using the state-administered program should follow the state's decision, or contact the state to discuss any discrepancies.

Pay and Benefits

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Elimination Period

📝 Configuration Note: Waiting periods are not configured within AbsenceSoft, as the waiting period does not apply to all absence reasons (it does not apply to bonding or qualifying exigency leave) and applies only once per claim year, which is not something supported in configuration. Elimination periods do not apply to job-protected benefits the state program may offer.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Elimination periods should be recorded and confirmed in the platform based on the state's determination; follow the state's recommendation for claims that do not meet the payable limitation.

Required Paperwork/Communication

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork for WA-PFML through the WAPFML Notice of Rights (WAPFMLNOTICEOFRIGHTS) paperwork/attachment. Paperwork is configured to be sent as part of the Employee Eligibility packet. Employers with private plans may have different requirements causing the need for a custom paperwork attachment be created with employer specific details.

WA-PFML certification forms are not available in the platform and are made available to the employee through the Employment Security Department (ESD) website.

💡 Best Practice: Employers can review with counsel if they wish to substitute the state's poster for the Notice of Rights in the platform.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Employers without a PDF editor may be unable to add required merge tokens or information directly to the Notice of Rights and may need to convert it to Word to make those edits.

📝 Configuration Note: The WA-PFML Job Protection Employer Notice (WAPFMLJOBPROTECTION) that speaks to job restoration rights is configured as a communication rather than a paperwork attachment, to support the state's five-business-day notice timing requirement.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required:

• Users will need to manually send the job protection restoration notice and create to-dos to track timing until the related workflow automation is completed.

• WA-PFML Job Protection Employer Notice (WAPFMLJOBPROTECTION) shows an estimate of when job restoration ends based on case end date. Clients will need to review this is accurate before sending because the employee may be covered under additional state, company, or federal policies that don’t reflect the WA-PFML-JP exhaustion or end date.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If the employer chooses to coordinate FMLA and WA-PFML-JP when the employee does not file for WA-PFML, users will need to create or adjust communication templates and workflows to meet the state's notice timing. See Legislative Guidance for Employer Responsibilities details, and Configuring Washington PFML/FMLA Coordination Monthly Communication Workflow article.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Updates to existing paperwork items can occur. When updates happen, they are automatically applied to paperwork unless the client has customized. Clients with customizations on the relevant paperwork will need to review to determine how to adopt the new paperwork and apply any new customizations to the updated paperwork manually.

Payroll Calculations

This policy uses a Base Wage Calculation Method developed from information published by the state of Washington. It aims to closely replicate the calculations performed by the Employment Security Department (ESD).

Pay History

Uses the two highest of the oldest 4 of the 5 most-recent quarterly totals.

📝 Configuration Note: Gross quarterly totals should include all wages reported to the Washington Employment Security Department, including base wages, overtime, and commissions. Tips are excluded; Washington is the only state that explicitly excludes tips from its paid leave wage definition. Annual bonuses are reported in the quarter paid, and a bonus paid in one of the two highest quarters may increase the benefit estimate.

Policy Configuration

A State Weekly Max is configured in the policy's Benefit Settings.

📝 Configuration Note: Current State Weekly Max is $1,647, effective January 1, 2026 (90% of the state average weekly wage of $1,830, per RCW 50A.15.020). A State Weekly Max of $1,727 (90% of the 2027 SAWW of $1,919) is already configured effective January 1, 2027. This amount is set annually by the ESD; confirm the current-year maximum before relying on it.

Washington Base Wage Calculation Method Logic

1. Retrieve Pay History:

   1. Retrieve the last five full quarters of pay history prior to the Leave Start Date. Remove the most recent quarter, leaving the oldest four.

2. Calculate the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW):

   1. Identify the two quarters with the highest total earnings among the four.

   2. Sum the two highest quarters and divide by 26, rounding down to the nearest whole dollar, to determine the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW).

3. Calculate the Base Weekly Wage:

   1. Apply the state benefit percent (90%): AWW × 0.90.

   2. Retrieve the state max from Benefit Settings within the Policy Configuration.

   3. If the calculated benefit exceeds the state max, cap the result at the state max.

   4. Return this as the Base Weekly Wage.

📝 Configuration Note: The value returned is an AbsenceSoft estimate based on the state's published formula. This estimate should be used for planning purposes only and confirmed against the official state determination before being treated as final.

Need Help?

For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.