Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave
Washington State offers Paid Family and Medical Leave law (HB 1213), effective January 1, 2020. This guidance outlines how to administer these policies within the AbsenceSoft platform following the amendments.
AbsenceSoft uses two policies to manage this program: one for paid benefits and one for job protection.
Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave
Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave – Job Protection
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
Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere
Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform
Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management
How AbsenceSoft Manages Washington Paid Leave
AbsenceSoft uses two separate policies that may work together to provide Washington Paid Leave benefits:
Policy Name | Policy Code | Policy Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
Washington Paid Leave | WA-PFML | Paid Leave | Provides wage replacement during qualifying leave |
Washington Paid Leave - Job Protection | WA-PFML-JP | Job Protection | Protects employee's position during leave |
Manual Action and Tracking Required : Users may need to create or adjust applicable communication templates and/or workflows, if the employer chooses to coordinate FMLA and Washington Paid Leave - Job Protection when the employee does not file for Washington Paid Leave benefits/wage replacement.
See Configuring Washington PFML/FMLA Coordination Monthly Communication Workflow document for help in supporting those employers who wish to invoke the law’s stipulations. Information is located within the left-hand Navigation pane below this document.
Administration Options
Washington Paid Leave can be administered through:
State Plan (default) through the Employment Security Department (ESD)
Private Plans (fully or self-insured) requiring custom policies
Best Practice: Private fully and self-insured plans should disable the core policies and create custom policies to track separately.
Employer Coverage Requirements
Employers must provide job protection benefits if they have 25 or more employees. There are no employer coverage requirements for wage replacement benefits.
Excluded Employers
All Washington employers are covered except:
Federal government employers
Independent Contractors (may opt-in)
Tribal owned businesses
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy applies to all Washington employees by default.
Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for employees of excluded employers.
Employee Eligibility
Work State Requirements
Employees need not work directly in the state of Washington to be considered an employee. Employees whose work is localized in the state, service is performed in the state, base of operations or the work is being directed from a place with Washington, or business is not controlled from any specific state, but the employee resides in Washington should be reviewed.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is configured to apply to employees with Work State = Washington .
Earnings Requirements
For paid/wage replacement benefits, employees must have worked at least 820 hours in a qualifying period determined by the state.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy does not have the 820 hours configured as the hours can be fulfilled through multiple employers. Employers using the state administered program should use the state’s determination or may contact the state for any questions on their decisions.
Eligibility Exceptions
Excluded Employees
Federal government employees
Independent Contractors (may opt-in)
Tribal owned business employees
Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for excluded employees or for those who have not opted into the program.
Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for employees who do not meet the employee coverage requirements.
Configuration Note: Key employees can be excluded from job protection. Employers using key employee identifiers will need to review to ensure they apply job protections appropriately.
Qualifying Family Members
Special Family Relationship Requirements
De Facto Parent:
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not have a relationship for 'De Facto Parent'. Users should select:
Legal Ward in place of this relationship for a child
Legal Guardian in place of this relationship for a parent
Any individual regularly residing in the home who establishes care needs from another member of the household - or-
Any relationship with an expectation of care from that family member to another
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft uses Individual Dependent on Employee for Care
Leave Entitlements and Duration
Entitlement Overview
Absence Reason Category | Entitlement | Period |
|---|---|---|
Medical Leave (Employee Health Condition + Pregnancy/Maternity) | Up to 12 weeks Up to 14 weeks if PREG/MAT with Pregnancy complications | Sunday Forward 52 week period |
Family Leave (Bonding, Adoption/Foster Care, Family Health Condition, Qualifying Exigency, Bereavement) | Up to 12 weeks Bereavement is limited to 1 work week per case | Sunday Forward 52 week period |
Combined Maximum (all reasons) | 16 weeks 18 weeks for Pregnancy Complications | Sunday Forward 52 week period |
Configuration Note: Entitlement automatically provides 16 weeks combined entitlement across both absence reason categories, and 18 weeks combined if the pregnancy case with complications takes the leave across the 18 week combined maximum.
Manual Tracking Required: Employers using the state administered program should follow the decision of the state.
Entitlement Rules
Adoption/Foster Care
Adoption/Foster Care under the law allows for preplacement activities and expires 12 months from either the date the child arrived in the home or legally finalized adoption.
Bereavement
Bereavement is only available when the employee has experienced pregnancy, or child loss. An eligibility rule will appear to have case managers confirm if the loss applies to the law’s requirements.
Configuration Note: Bereavement is configured with 1 week per case to satisfy the limit of 7 days for loss of a child; multiple losses of children could result in an employee being able to take 7 days per event, subject to a 16 week maximum
Manual Action Required: Case managers will need to review and override where necessary to confirm the employee is eligible for bereavement.
Best Practice: Close out any open pregnancy/maternity, bonding, adoption/foster cases before opening a bereavement event.
Pregnancy and Bonding - Separate Cases - Critical Change: Separate Cases Required
Pregnancy (12 weeks from Medical Leave pool) and Bonding (12 weeks from Family Leave pool) have separate, non-shared allocations.
Manual Action 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.
A workflow will generate a todo upon case creation of a pregnancy/maternity case that reminds the user to create a separate bonding case if applicable. This generates for employees in work state Washington for new cases created after the May 2026 release.
Best Practice:
Create the bonding case without delay if needed to ensure it does not get missed.
Communicate this requirement clearly to employees requesting both pregnancy and bonding leave.
Manual Action Required: When the Bonding case is created, eligibility may need to be overridden to match the eligibility status as of the start of the pregnancy case. This is only needed if the bonding case immediately follows the pregnancy case.
Pregnancy/Maternity Additional Entitlement
The Medical Complications option at intake must be answered as Yes to show the additional entitlement available.
Manual Action Required: Manually intervention will be necessary if the complications arise anytime after the case is created.
Pregnancy Complications + Bonding Leave - Extended Cap Manual Override
When an employee takes bonding leave following a complicated pregnancy, they are entitled to an 18-week total cap (instead of the standard 16-week cap). However, because pregnancy and bonding have separate entitlements in WA-PFML, they are managed as separate cases in the AbsenceSoft platform. The system cannot automatically recognize that a previous complicated pregnancy case should extend the cap for a subsequent bonding case.
When This Applies:
Employee previously had a WA-PFML case for pregnancy with complications (received or was entitled to the extended 18-week cap)
Employee now requests a WA-PFML bonding case for the same birth
Manual Action Required: When the above scenario occurs, you must manually override exhaustion on the bonding case to provide the additional 2 weeks:
Override the Bonding Entitlement:
Standard bonding entitlement: 12 weeks
Manual override to: 14 weeks
Reason for override: "Extended entitlement due to previous complicated pregnancy"
this should bring the overall combined entitlement to a total of 18 weeks for the complicated pregnancy and the bonding case.
Bonding
Bonding leave must be taken within 12 months of birth. adoption, or placement.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is configured to end 12 months following delivery or placement date.
How Leave Can Be Taken
Intermittent Leave Hours Limit
Leave can be taken intermittently with a minimum of 4 hour increments.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not limit to 4 hour increments. Employers following the state administered program will need to follow the state’s decision, or contact the state to discuss any discrepancies.
Pay and Benefits
Elimination Period Requirements
Waiting periods are not configured within AbsenceSoft as the waiting period does not apply in all situations and the waiting period is valid only once per claim year which is not something supported in configuration.
Manual Action Required: Employers should manually apply waiting periods as necessary. Employers following the state administered program will need to follow the state’s decision, or contact the state to discuss any discrepancies.
Payment Requirements
Intermittent Leave Payments
For intermittent leaves, payment is applicable after a minimum of 4 hours.
Tracking Required: Users are required to track this threshold manually. Employers following the state administered program will need to follow the state’s decision, or contact the state to discuss any discrepancies.
Benefit Period
Standard Benefit Period
The benefit period covers 52 weeks on Sunday Forward period beginning the effective date of leave.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's configuration is Employer Default. Employers may wish to update this configuration to align with state’s administration.
Required Paperwork
The state has not yet provided updated templates for the amendments effective 1/1/2026 that impact the notice requirements.
In addition to a notice provided at time of leave, the amendments require employers to provide a restoration notice to employees. The state has mentioned templates would be available in December.
ACE is continuing to monitor for updates from the state for future impacts.
Manual Action and Tracking Required: Users may need to create or adjust applicable communication templates and/or workflows, if the employer chooses to coordinate FMLA and WA-PFML-JP when the employee does not file for WA-PFML benefits/wage replacement.
Platform Workflow & Required Actions
Identifying Qualifying Cases
Automatic: The platform automatically identifies qualifying cases based on:
Work State = Washington
Qualifying absence reason
Employee eligibility criteria met
Earnings requirements met
Adding Washington Paid Leave Policies
Automatic: Both policies are automatically added to new cases with qualifying absence reasons:
Washington Paid Leave
Washington Paid Leave - Job Protection
Manual Action Required: For cases with excluded employees (exemptions), manually add, remove, or override eligibility for policies as needed.
Need Help?
For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.