New tax increases, min. wage increases and digitalization/coding of our work. And yes, we will be paying a 17 year old $15.74/hr. to lackadaisically push a broom. Just received this from our accountant.
ATTENTION ALL EMPLOYERS!
You may have heard via news, mail, email notifications or word-of-mouth that there are many wage, tax and other required reporting changes coming January 1, 2023 for the state of Washington. All of the changes I have included apply to companies with 50 employees or less. I have not included information that does not apply to our clients in general. Some of our businesses have set up their own policies specific to their company preferences, in which case, please reach out if you have any questions on how these will affect your current setup.
I have listed the updates, in order of what is likely the most urgent, specifically highlighting anything that requires your action. As always, we will make these changes in your payroll to maintain compliance with the law. If we manage HR for you, I will walk you through the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act information to answer questions and ensure compliance.
- The minimum wage in Washington will increase to $15.74 on Jan. 1, 2023. Younger workers, ages 14 or 15, can expect to be paid $13.38 an hour (85% of the standard minimum wage). Seattle is $16.50 and the state minimum wage is adopted by Tacoma for now.
Exempt Salaried Employee minimum wage increases 24% to $57,293.60 to remain exempt from Overtime. Employees earning less no longer qualify to be exempt from Overtime and must be paid time-and-a-half for any hours worked over 40 in a 7-day set work week.
- Standard Occupation Codes Required. Employment Security Department requires a new code be assigned to every employee based on their job duties/roles in the company. All workers are classified into one of 867 detailed occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, detailed occupations are combined to form 459 broad occupations, 98 minor groups, and 23 major groups. You can look these up by key word at O*NET Code Connector Here is the website for additional information and how to classify your workers. SOC 2000 ‐ SOC User Guide : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
EMAIL the SOC codes for each of your named workers to
[email protected] by January 5, 2023.
These MUST be included in our Q4 2022 Unemployment reporting. If you need help getting the correct code for your workers, please email job details for any and all current employees to
[email protected] as soon as possible.
- Paid Family Medical Leave: This premium is (typically) employee-paid and is increasing from .6% to .8%. The portion of PFML deducted from their pay is now .58208% which is 72.76% of .8%. You are required to notify employees of the PFML increase. Please download and print the document for notification here: https://paidleave.wa.gov/app/uploads/2021/12/2023.FNL_WPFML-poster_EN.pdf
- ESD and L&I rates are increasing across the board, as well as the taxable wage base increasing to $67,600.00. Please send us the notifications you receive from these agencies so we can update the payroll systems for the first payroll in January.
- Employers with 15 or more employees: Effective January 1, 2023, employers must disclose in each posting for each job opening the wage scale or salary range and a general description of all benefits and other compensation offered to the hired applicant. Set up a call with me for great options we have to make offer letters easy!
In addition, the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act is in effect; please keep in mind the highlights listed here and seek more info if you have concerns about how this affects your organization by going to https://lni.wa.gov/workers-rights/wages/equal-pay-opportunities-act
| Employee Rights | Job Applicant Rights |
| Equal pay, not based on gender | Privacy of wage or salary history when applying for a job |
| Equal career advancement opportunities, not based on gender | No requirement for wage or salary history to meet certain criteria |
| Ability to discuss wages with others | Access to minimum wage or salary information of a new position, upon request by the applicant |
| Access to wage or salary information of a new position or promotion, upon request by the employee | |
| Protection from retaliation | |
Coming July 2023: The Long-term Care Act, aka WA Cares Fund, will be reinstated, affecting all employees and W2 wage earners. Unfortunately, Employment Security did not make public any of the new deadlines for applying for exemptions for those who purchased LTC insurance prior to November 2021. The deadline is Dec. 31, 2022 to apply for a permanent exemption. Additional information will be forthcoming from ESD in the near future.
This is a very busy time of year for us! Please call the office to schedule an appointment or leave a message with one of the office staff and I will return your call as soon as I can.
Thank you so much for the opportunity we have had to serve you this year. We look forward to providing peace of mind and the opportunity to prosper for all our clients in the New Year!
Warmest Regards,
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