To qualify for the SharedWork program, you need to:
- Be a legally registered business in Washington state.
- Have an Employment Security Department (ESD) number.
- Enroll at least 2 permanent full-time or part-time employees.
- Pay all participating employees hourly. Or convert the pay of salaried employees to hourly wages.
- Reduce the usual work hours for each participating employee between 10% and 50%.
- Agree that you will give us any information we request while you are enrolled in SharedWork.
- Certify that work hours are reduced instead of layoffs. And that layoffs would have resulted in the same work hours reduced.
Regarding employee benefits
You will continue to pay your employees whatever benefits you pay now:
You need to pay these benefits to employees on or off your SharedWork plan, and you need to pay these benefits under the same terms you used before you reduced work hours.
Your SharedWork plan needs to include:
- A list of participating employees with all information required by Employment Security. Note: The list cannot include corporate officers or seasonal employees during their off season.
- Approval from the collective bargaining agent for each participating employee covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
- An estimate of the number of employees you would have laid off if you did not enroll in SharedWork.
- A plan to give advance notice to employees — when possible — before reducing their work hours. If advance notice is not possible, the plan needs to explain why not.
You need to choose a SharedWork employer representative
When you apply, you need to choose someone to be your SharedWork employer representative. We also recommend that you choose someone else to be an alternate. The representative(s) will work with both SharedWork staff and with your participating employees.
Read more about the rules and requirements for SharedWork employer representatives.
Laws and rules about SharedWork
Washington has incorporated federal law into our SharedWork laws and rules.