Employer agents

Employer agents

Go to our reporting page for details on:

  • Creating an employer agent account
  • Reporting for clients
  • Remitting for clients

Visit the Help Center for more employer agent resources.

What is an employer agent?

An employer agent, or third-party administrator, is a business that has an agreement with one or more client companies to manage their Paid Family and Medical Leave reporting, premium payments, benefit claims or other related tasks.

Do employer agents need a power of attorney to report and pay on behalf of clients?

Agents may file reports and amendments and pay premiums for clients without a signed power of attorney (POA). However, you will need a signed POA before our staff can provide you any information about your client’s account, including reports or employee-level data. You will also need a POA to represent your client in audits or appeals.

If you do need POAs for your clients, download the form, complete and sign it, and upload it using your employer agent Paid Leave account. Please note: We must review the form before you can access your client’s account. We are receiving a high volume of POA forms, so processing times may be delayed. We will waive penalties for late reporting if we are unable to process your POA in time.

Without a POA on file, you may:

  • Bulk file for your clients with an ICESA file
  • Link to individual client accounts to report using a .CSV file upload or manual entry.
  • Amend your clients’ reports via ICESA or .CSV file upload.
  • Bulk pay using ACH credit (to get the instructions for ACH credit payments, email our Care Team with “Request: Bulk Payment Instructions” in the subject line).
  • Pay for individual clients by credit or debit card, ACH debit or check/money order.

Paid Family and Medical Leave has different bulk filing specifications than other state agencies.

NEW: Beginning Quarter 3 2023 (reporting period begins Oct. 1, 2023) employers will report Paid Leave and WA Cares premiums from employees at the same time on the same report. Learn more about WA Cares reporting.

Employers

Need instructions on creating your file upload (.CSV) for your quarterly reporting?

Use the updated Paid Leave and WA Cares .CSV File Specifications (v8) and the new Paid Leave and WA Cares .CSV Template (v8).

Employer Agents

Employer agents who bulk file (ICESA) should use the new ICESA file specifications (v8) for Paid Leave and WA Cares.

Employer agents who link to the clients and use single file uploads will need to use the new .CSV File Specifications (v8) and .CSV Template (v8).

If you have a POA on file with Paid Family and Medical Leave, you may also:

  • Link to a client and view details about their account, reporting history and payments.
  • File manual amendments.
  • Get information from us about your clients’ accounts.

Employer agents can stay up to date by subscribing to our employer agent newsletter. Previous newsletters sent to this list are posted in our newsroom.