Updates

• Employers
• Benefit customers

2027 Paid Family & Medical Leave Premiums 

Benefits from Washington’s Paid Family & Medical Leave program are a vital source of support for Washington workers. More than 221,000 individuals have claimed Paid Leave benefits in the first 9 months of 2026, totaling more than $1.8 billion dollars. 

Starting Jan. 1, 2027: 

• The premium rate will be 1.2%. The rate for 2026 is 1.13%. 
• Employers will pay 29.3% of the total premium and employees will pay 70.7%. 

WA responds to IRS tax guidance 

Second Substitute House Bill 2345, passed earlier this year in response to new IRS guidance on tax liability issues relating to Paid Leave, takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. The bill modifies the distribution of employer and employee contributions between family and medical leave premiums without affecting how the total premium is divided between employees and employers. Read more about SSHB 2345 on the ESD website. 

This change will avoid unintended employer or state payroll tax liability associated with medical leave benefits financed through employer contributions while maintaining a static overall premium rate structure. 

Pick-up contributions (employer covered employee share of premiums) are considered wages per the federal guidance but are not considered gross wages for Paid Leave or WA Cares.  

Next steps for employers 

• Notify your employees that you will start collecting the new rate on Jan. 1, 2027. 
• On Jan. 1, 2027, start collecting the new premium rate from your employees each pay period. Remember, you cannot retroactively withhold premiums from employees. You may need to update your payroll systems. 
• First-quarter premiums and reports are due by the end of April 2027. 

Why the premium rate is changing 

Premiums, collected from employees and employers through quarterly reporting, fund the Paid Leave program. By law, we recalculate the Paid Leave premium rate annually on or around Oct. 20. The premium rate is adjusted based on contributions from premiums and benefits paid during the previous year. 

All employers, regardless of size, are responsible for remitting the employee share of the premium to ESD on a quarterly basis.  

Important details: 

• You can choose to withhold the entire 70.7% from your employee’s paycheck, or you can cover all or some of the premium on your employee’s behalf. 

• If you are using a voluntary plan for family or medical leave, your calculations may be different. Visit paidleave.wa.gov/voluntary-plans for more. 

• Employers will continue to report each employee’s total gross wages, not including tips, and collect premiums up to the Social Security cap. Once an employee meets the Social Security cap, you must stop collecting premiums but continue to report their wages. 

• Businesses classified by the Employment Security Department as having fewer than 50 employees are not required to pay the employer portion of the premium. However, they must still collect the employee premium or pay the employees’ premiums on their behalf. 

Coming soon 

We’ll have more resources available on our website before the end of the year, including: 

• An updated premium calculator. 
• Additional reporting information for employers.  

Stay tuned!

Employers

Billing statements help businesses stay ahead of upcoming late fees

On August 1, 2026, Paid Leave will begin applying penalties to past due reports and interest to overdue premium balances. To help businesses stay on top of payments and avoid unnecessary charges, we began mailing monthly billing statements in May.

Read more about billing statements and late fees.

2026 legislative changes

• Job protection: Enhances job protection for employees taking Paid Leave from employers with 25 or more employees.
• Health care benefits: Clarifies when employers are required to maintain health care benefits for employees taking job-protected Paid Leave.
• Paid Leave and FMLA concurrence: Provides information to help employers manage job protection when an employee is eligible for both Paid Leave and FMLA.
• Weekly claim minimums: Reduces the minimum amount of time an employee must miss in a week to be eligible for Paid Leave from 8 consecutive hours to 4 consecutive hours.
• Small business assistance grants: Expands Paid Leave’s grant program to help small employers with costs related to employees on leave.

Watch our employer webinar for an overview of these changes, or download the presentation in English (PDF, 1172 KB) or Spanish (PDF, 866 KB) :

Benefit customers

• Application processing times: Our application processing time is 3-4 weeks.
• Using your benefit account: Download our online user guides for help creating and managing your benefit account. Learn more on the Technical Support page.
• Overpayments: If we determine that you have been overpaid, you will receive a detailed letter with the amount of the overpayment and the reason for the overpayment. You will be able to access this letter in your benefit account. Learn more about viewing your balance due or making payments in the Help Center.