Washington Administrative Code

(1) An employer may, but is not required to, frontload paid sick leave to an employee in advance of accrual. An employer that allows an employee to go into "negative balances" of paid sick leave (i.e., where paid sick leave has not accrued and the employer allows its use) is fron…

(1) Employers may contract with a third-party administrator in order to administer the paid sick leave requirements under RCW 49.46.180, 49.46.200, and 49.46.210, and all applicable rules.(2) Employers are not relieved of their obligations under RCW 49.46.200 and 49.46.210, and a…

(1) If an employer can demonstrate that an employee's use of paid sick leave was for a purpose not authorized under RCW 49.46.210 (1)(b) and (c), the employer may withhold payment of paid sick leave for such hours, but may not subsequently deduct those hours from an employee's le…

(1) Employers must notify each employee of their entitlement to paid sick leave, the rate at which the employee will accrue paid sick leave, the authorized purposes under which paid sick leave may be used, the employer's intention to use a PTO program to meet requirements under R…

(1) Payment before usage. RCW 49.46.180 allows a construction worker covered by a collective bargaining agreement to receive payment for paid sick leave before usage under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement if:(a) The leave itself becomes available for protected use b…

(1) Following separation, construction industry employers must pay the balance of accrued and unused paid sick leave to construction workers classified under NAICS code 23 who have not reached the 90th calendar day of employment, except for construction workers who perform work l…

(1) It is unlawful for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of any employee right provided under or in connection with chapter 49.46 RCW. This means an employer may not use an employee's exercise of any of the rights provided under chapter 49.46 RCW as a …

(1) An employee who believes that they were subject to retaliation by their employer, as defined in WAC 296-128-770, for the exercise of any employee right under chapter 49.46 RCW, may file a complaint with the department within one hundred eighty days of the alleged retaliatory …

(1) If the department's investigation finds that an employer retaliated against an employee, pursuant to the procedures outlined in WAC 296-128-780, the department may order the employer to pay the department a civil penalty. A civil penalty for an employer's retaliatory action w…

(1) A person, firm, or corporation aggrieved by a citation and notice of assessment or a determination of compliance may, within thirty days after the date of such decision, submit a request for reconsideration to the department setting forth the grounds for seeking such reconsid…

(1) If an employee files a complaint with the department alleging that the employer failed to provide the employee with paid sick leave as provided in RCW 49.46.180, 49.46.200, and 49.46.210, the department will investigate the complaint as an alleged violation of a wage payment …

If an employee files a complaint with the department alleging that their employer failed to pay to the employee all tips and gratuities due to the employee under RCW 49.46.020, or all service charges due to the employee under RCW 49.46.020 and 49.46.160, the department will inves…

(1) If an employee files a complaint with the department alleging a violation of the employee's rights under chapter 49.46 RCW, and all applicable rules, that are not otherwise enforced by the department pursuant to WAC 296-128-780 through 296-128-820, or the Wage Payment Act, RC…

(1) A person, firm, or corporation aggrieved by a citation assessing a civil penalty issued by the department under WAC 296-128-830 may appeal the citation assessing a civil penalty to the director by filing a notice of appeal with the director within thirty days of the departmen…

Collections of unpaid citations assessing civil penalties will be handled pursuant to the procedures outlined in RCW 49.48.086.[Statutory Authority: RCW 49.46.810, 49.46.005, 49.46.020, 49.46.090, 49.46.100, 49.46.120, 49.46.200, 49.46.210, 49.46.810, 49.46.820, and 49.46.830. WS…

If any provision of the rules in this chapter, or their application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of these rules or their application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.[Statutory Authority: RCW 49.46.810, 49.46.005, …

(1) "Adult entertainment" has the same meaning as in RCW 49.17.470.(2) "Adult entertainment establishment" or "establishment" has the same meaning as in RCW 49.17.470.(3) "Amounts collected" for the purposes of calculating leasing fees under RCW 49.46.360(3) and associated rules,…

(1) An establishment is not required to collect leasing fees or other fees from an entertainer. If an establishment charges an entertainer any leasing fee or other fee including, but not limited to, entertainment fees or room charges, such fee(s) must:(a) Apply equally to all ent…

(1) Entertainers are not required to surrender any tips or gratuities including, but not limited to, participating in any tip pool.(2) Entertainers are not required to disclose tip or gratuity amounts to an establishment.(3) Tips and gratuities are in addition to, and do not coun…

(1) Any leasing fee or other fee including, but not limited to, entertainment fees or room charges, charged by an establishment to an entertainer must be stated in a written contract.(2) If the establishment charges leasing fees, the written contract must include:(a) A method for…

(1) All establishments must display signage in areas designated for entertainers that communicate:(a) Entertainers are not required to surrender any tips or gratuities; and(b) An establishment may not take adverse action against an entertainer in response to the entertainer's use…

(1) An establishment must provide an entertainer, or former entertainer, with written notice of the reason(s) for any termination or refusal to rehire that includes any applicable date(s) of events or corrective action that led to the termination or rehire refusal.(2) An establis…

(1) It is unlawful for an establishment to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of any entertainer right provided under or in connection with RCW 49.46.360 or associated rules.(2) It is unlawful for an establishment to adopt or enforce any policy that may lead to or res…

(1) The department may enforce any amounts owed including, but not limited to, amounts collected and tips or gratuities under RCW 49.46.360 and associated rules as a wage payment requirement under RCW 49.48.082.(2) If an entertainer files a complaint with the department alleging …

(1) If an entertainer files a complaint with the department alleging a violation of any administrative requirement of RCW 49.46.360 or any associated rules, the department will investigate the complaint under RCW 49.46.360. Alleged violations include, but are not limited to, fail…

(1) An entertainer who believes that they were subject to retaliation by their establishment, as defined in WAC 296-128-90010, for the exercise of any entertainer rights under RCW 49.46.360 or associated rules, may file a complaint with the department within 180 days of the alleg…

(1) A person, firm, or corporation aggrieved by a citation or determination of compliance issued by the department under WAC 296-128-90080 through 296-128-90100 may appeal the citation or determination of compliance to the director by filing a notice of appeal with the director w…

Collections of unpaid citations will be handled pursuant to the procedures outlined in RCW 49.48.086.[Statutory Authority: RCW 49.46.360. WSR 24-24-075, s 296-128-90120, filed 12/2/24, effective 1/2/25.]

If any provision of the rules in this chapter, or their application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of these rules or their application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.[Statutory Authority: RCW 49.46.360. WSR 24-24-0…

(1) "Coercion" means a threat to compel or induce a person to engage in conduct which the person has a legal right to abstain from, or to abstain from conduct in which the person has a legal right to engage in. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening an employee to disc…

Any employer that coerces an employee in furtherance of the employer committing a violation of chapter 49.46, 49.48, 49.12, or 49.30 RCW, or any rules issued by the department, is subject to a civil penalty under this chapter in addition to any other penalty that may be imposed b…

(1) An employee who believes they were subject to coercion based on immigration status by their employer, related to any employee right under chapter 49.46, 49.48, 49.12, or 49.30 RCW, or any associated rules, may file a complaint with the department within 180 days of the allege…

(1) If the department's investigation finds that an employer violated RCW 49.46.370, or any applicable rules, the department must order the employer to pay the department a civil penalty. A civil penalty for each act of coercion committed by the employer will be applied in accord…

(1) "Absence" means any period of time in which the driver is unable to perform passenger platform time on the transportation network company's driver platform due to an authorized purpose defined in RCW 49.46.210.(2) An "accessible system" is:(a) A platform through which the dri…

Transportation network companies must collect and remit per trip fee amounts from passenger fares to the driver resource center fund as follows:(1) Beginning July 1, 2024, the per trip fee amount is $0.15.(2) Beginning January 1, 2025, and every January 1st thereafter, the per tr…

(1) Electronic receipts. Within 24 hours of each dispatched trip, a transportation network company must transmit to the driver an electronic receipt, available in a communication system, for each unique trip or portion of a unique trip. For the purposes of an electronic receipt, …

(1) A transportation network company must establish regularly scheduled payment intervals for compensation, tips and gratuities, reimbursements, or any other amounts due to a driver. The scheduled interval must occur at least bi-weekly. Nothing in this provision prevents a transp…

(1) A transportation network company must pay drivers in accordance with RCW 49.46.300(4) as follows:(a) For a dispatched trip with a passenger pick-up location in Washington all minimum compensation requirements under RCW 49.46.300(4) apply for the entirety of the trip, regardle…

(1) A transportation network company shall remit to drivers all tips, except as provided in WAC 296-128-99080. Tips paid to a driver are in addition to, and may not count towards, the driver's minimum compensation under RCW 49.46.300(4) or associated rules.(2) All tips must be pa…

(1) "Driver reimbursement" is an amount charged to a passenger and remitted to the driver for tolls, fees, or any other charges or surcharges.(2) A transportation network company must pay driver reimbursements in an amount at least equal to the amount charged to the passenger for…

(1) Mandatory deductions. A transportation network company may deduct any portion of a driver's compensation, without a driver's prior written authorization, for the following reasons:(a) If the deduction is required by state or federal law; or(b) To satisfy a court order, judgme…

(1) Beginning no later than June 9, 2023, each transportation network company must provide an opportunity for drivers to make voluntary per trip earnings deduction contributions to the driver resource center, if the transportation network company has 100 or more drivers authorize…

(1) A transportation network company must enter into an agreement with the driver resource center regarding the driver account deactivation appeals process for eligible account deactivations, including an expeditious process for determining whether an account deactivation is an e…

(1) Notice of rights requirements. A transportation network company must provide each driver with a written notice of rights as established by RCW 49.46.300(7) and associated rules. The notice must inform drivers of:(a) The right to the applicable per minute rate, per mile rate, …

(1) It is unlawful for a transportation network company to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of any driver right provided under or in connection with chapter 49.46 RCW or associated rules. This means a transportation network company may not use a driver's exercise of…

(1) Drivers accrue earned paid sick time for all passenger platform time worked. A driver must accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours of passenger platform time worked. Transportation network companies may provide drivers with a more generous paid sick time…

(1) A driver is entitled to use earned paid sick time for the following purposes authorized in RCW 49.46.210(5):(a) An absence resulting from the driver's mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; to accommodate the driver's need for medical diagnosis, care, or tre…

(1) A transportation network company must pay drivers their average hourly compensation for each hour of paid sick time used, as established by RCW 49.46.210.(2) "Average hourly compensation" means a driver's compensation during passenger platform time for, or facilitated by, the…

(1) A transportation network company may not require advanced notice of paid sick time use from a driver for an authorized purpose under RCW 49.46.210.(2) A transportation network company's request or requirement for advanced notice of paid sick time from a driver is considered a…

(1) Paid time off (PTO) provided to drivers by a transportation network company's PTO program (i.e., a program that combines leave for multiple purposes into one pool), created by a written policy or agreement with a third-party administrator, satisfies the requirement to provide…