Calculating intermittent paid family leave benefits in Washington

Eligible employees in Washington can take time away from work for various family and medical reasons. Washington has an insurance program that provides partial wage replacement to those employees. Employers that provide equitable paid family leave may want to be able to calculate how much money an employee will receive from Washington’s program in order to supplement those payments up to the employee’s regular weekly wage.

In this article, we explain how Washington calculates those weekly benefits. In weeks when the state pays a full week of benefits, employers may want to supplement those payments by paying the difference between the employee’s regular wages and the amount the employee receives from the state. 

But what about when the employee works part of a week? For example, in the week when the leave begins and ends, the employee might receive partial paid family leave benefits from the state of Washington. Furthermore, Washington employees may use their paid family leave in eight hour increments. 

In this article, we discuss how Washington calculates intermittent leave pay. Employers who provide paid bonding leave to employees can use this information to calculate an appropriate supplemental payment for eligible Washington employees who use paid family leave on an intermittent basis and receive wage replacement insurance benefits from the state.

But remember, read this article first so you can understand how Washington calculates leave benefits generally.

Weekly benefit proration

Under Washington’s paid family leave statute, the weekly benefit paid to an employee is prorated by the percentage of hours on leave compared to the hours provided as the “typical workweek hours.” 

The phrase “typical workweek hours” is defined in the statute for hourly employees and salaried employees. For an hourly employee, “typical workweek hours” means the average number of hours worked per week by an employee within the qualifying period. For a salaried employee, “typical workweek hours” means forty hours, regardless of the number of hours the salaried employee typically works. The law does not define how to calculate “typical workweek hours” for employees paid in other ways, such as on a commission or piece-rate basis.

When will weekly benefits be prorated?

Washington employees who are approved for paid family leave will submit weekly claims for benefits. The state program will prorate the amounts paid to an employee if (1) the employee worked and received wages; (2) the employee used paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, or other paid leave that is not simply the employer supplementing Washington’s leave benefit, or (3) when the employee files a weekly application for benefits that has a day or days for which the employee was not approved for paid family or medical leave (including at the beginning or end of a leave period).

As explained below, Washington’s paid family leave regulations provide for two types of proration calculations. The first calculation is used when an employee is approved to use bonding leave for the entire week but reports some hours worked (i.e., intermittent leave). The second calculation is to be used when the employee is only approved to use bonding leave for part of the week (i.e., the start or ending weeks of an intermittent leave).

Proration when the employee is approved to use bonding leave for the entire week but reports some hours worked

If the employee reports hours worked in a week when bonding hours have been approved, then the weekly benefit is prorated by the percentage of hours on leave compared to the number of hours provided as the typical workweek hours. The benefits are rounded down to the nearest dollar. 

Example: An employee on leave is salaried and works five days per week. The employee is using bonding leave intermittently and qualifies for the maximum 2023 state weekly benefit of $1,427. 

In one of the weeks, the employee works Monday-Wednesday and uses bonding leave on Thursday and Friday. Because the employee is salaried, the typical workweek is 40 hours and the employee is deemed to have missed 16 of those hours, or 40%. Thus, the employee’s weekly benefit will be paid at the rate of 40% of the weekly benefit ($1,427), which totals $570.80. Those benefits are rounded down to $570.

If the employer wants to supplement the payment from Washington, it will need to determine the employee’s regular compensation for two workdays and subtract the $570.80 paid by Washington. 

Proration when the employee is only approved for paid family leave for part of the week

The regulations use a slightly different proration method when the employee is approved for leave for part of a week, but not the entire week. This is likely to occur in the first or last week of the bonding leave and is the calculation used for those weeks regardless of whether the bonding leave is continuous or intermittent.

In those weeks, the Washington program will take the employee’s typical workweek hours, multiply them by the number of days approved for leave in that week, and then divide by seven. The result is then rounded down to the nearest whole hour. Then, any hours worked or taken as paid time off as reported by the employee during the approved leave period are subtracted from the employee’s adjusted typical workweek hours. That number is the number of hours of paid family leave claimed for that week, and is divided by the typical workweek hours to get a percentage. The recent age is then multiplied by the employee’s normal weekly benefit amount. The resulting amount, rounded down to the nearest whole dollar, is the employee’s benefit payment for that week.

Example: An employee is salaried, so his typical workweek hours are deemed to be 40 under the statute. The employee’s weekly benefit amount is $1,252. The employee is on a paid family leave scheduled through Thursday, and is not approved for leave on Friday or Saturday.

To determine the employee’s Washington leave payment, you first take the typical workweek hours (40), multiply it by the number of approved days of leave for that week (5 days, Sunday - Thursday), divide by 7, and then round down. The result is an adjusted typical workweek of 28 hours. 

The next step would be to subtract any hours worked or paid time off reported for that week. Assume the employee did not work that week and does not report any time worked or paid time off used during the approved leave period, so nothing is deducted. Thus, the number of hours claimed for that week are 28. The number of hours claimed (28) are divided by the employee’s normal typical workweek hours (40). This results in a percentage of 70%.

The percentage (70%) is multiplied by the employee’s weekly benefit amount ($1,252). For that week the employee will receive $876 from the Washington program.

If the employer wants to supplement the payment from Washington’s program, it simply needs to take the employee’s regular compensation for the days away from work and subtract the amount paid to the employee by Washington’s program.

Minimum claim duration

Note that Washington law sets a minimum duration for employee leave claims. The minimum claim duration for paid family or medical leave benefits is eight consecutive hours in a week. If an employee of leave claims eight consecutive hours at any point during the week, the minimum claim duration is satisfied.

The Washington regulations provide an example of an employee who usually works six-hour shifts each weekday. If the employee uses paid family leave on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, then the minimum claim duration is satisfied with the leave taken on Thursday and Friday. The employee can also include the hours missed on Monday in the weekly claim.

If an employee typically works less than eight hour shifts, then the employee will meet the threshold for a minimum claim when the employee has missed eight consecutive hours at any point during the week the employee typically would have been scheduled. For example, the regulations explain that an employee who typically works four-hour shifts would need to miss two consecutive shifts to have a minimum claim.

EquiLeave helps employers calculate supplemental leave payments so employees can enjoy fair and equitable family leave. Click the link below for more information.