December 22, 2021

WA Cares premiums still collected starting Jan 1st

On December 17, Governor Inslee issued a press release about the delay of WA Cares Fund premium assessment. Despite this announcement, UW will still collect WA Cares Fund premiums from employees starting on January 1, 2022. FAQ #14 from the State HR page provides an explanation why:

The governor has instructed ESD [Employment Security Department] not to accept quarterly payments from all employers to give the legislature time to work on modifications to the program. However, the law remains in place and the law still requires employers, public and private, to collect the premiums from employees’ wages starting Jan. 1. The governor does not have the power to change this legal requirement on his own – it will require legislative action to change the underlying law. Legislators have committed to doing that in January and they have encouraged employers to take them at their word and forgo collections based on that commitment. There will not be penalties or interest collected on employers who do not collect.

However, the state as an employer will follow the law until it is changed. The only way to prevent collections from being legally required in January would be to change the underlying law before then.

More information can be found on the UW HR’s WA Cares Fund webpage.