20-P-002 Addition of New Tax Class Codes for Implementation of the Washington State Paid Family and Medical Leave (July 18, 2019)

Washington State Senate Bill 5975 enacted in July 2017 establishes a Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program in the State of Washington funded by premium payments comprised of both employee payroll deductions and employer contributions.  Family leave represents 1/3 of the total premium, and Medical Leave represents 2/3 of the premium.  Detailed information on the program is available on the State of Washington website at https://paidleave.wa.gov/.

For 2019 the total premium is 0.4% of gross wages, up to the annual Social Security taxable wage maximum ($132,900 in 2019).  The total premium is split between an employee payroll deduction (63.33%) and employer contribution (36.67%).  The State of Kansas does not currently meet the employment threshold for the employer contribution and is therefore only required to withhold the employee premium payroll deduction at this time.

To implement the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave payroll deduction, 4 new tax classes will be added to SHARP. The PFML tax classes will be effective for the payroll period beginning September 8, 2019, ending September 21, 2019, paid on October 4, 2019.

The PFML tax classes are:

In addition to the implementation of the new tax classes, a process for submitting the employee hours in accordance with the reporting requirements specified in the program documentation will be developed and provided to the Regent institutions in a separate communication.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Payroll Systems Team is responsible for making this change in the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring this change is reflected in their individual systems and is effective with the payroll period noted above. Regent institutions should also submit test payroll file sets to Statewide Payroll for approval by no later than August 31, 2019.

NTR:abe
Printable version of 20-P-002