Workers Compensation in Washington State

Do you own a business with employees operating in the state of Washington?  If so, then you need to purchase workers compensation insurance.  

Why?  It's required by law!  You can visit the Washington State's workers compensation website which is run though the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries to learn more about Workers Compensation requirements for employers in the state.

Additionally, Washington is one of the few monopolistic Workers Compensation states which mean that private insurance carriers that often provide insurance in most states are not allowed to offer workers comp in the state of Washington.  Instead, the Washington State Fund is the sole provider of workers compensation in the state of Washington.

Are you a sole proprietor or business owner without any employees?  If so, then you are not required to carry workers compensation in the state of Washington.  However, you can opt-in and purchase workers comp for yourself as an owner to cover your medical expenses if you're injured while working.

Pay as you go Workers Comp in Washington State

Once you have a workers compensation policy through the Washington State Fund you must report your employee's wages and pay your insurance premium quarterly.  This sounds time consuming right?  Well, it is!  Is there a better solution that frees up your time from doing all this paperwork and reporting?  Yes there definitely is with Trakpay by InsuranceTrak!

Thousands of employers with employees in the state of Washington has turned to InsuranceTrak's TrakPay software as a service to help them manage their workers comp payroll reporting and premium payments.  

Typically, employers must report their employees payroll and hours to the Washington State fund every quarter either online or through the mail.  This means the employer must pull their payroll reports every quarter, complete the necessary reporting, and pay a premium based on the payroll reported.  

Premiums paid are calculated by multiplying the composite hourly rate (which is determined by the risk class code for the employee) by each employee's payroll for the quarter.  

If you do your own payroll then you must be diligent about reporting payroll to the Washington State Fund quarterly.  However, if you use an accountant or payroll service to process your payroll then there is a chance that they will report your payroll on your behalf to the state.  If not, no worries!  Have them call InsuranceTrak at 585-282-0934 to get TrakPay certified.

What does TrakPay certified mean?  It means that your payroll service works with our TrakPay software to collect your payroll information every pay period.  TrakPay then processes the payroll reports and does the reporting to the Washington State Fund for you.  This means that all you need to do is run your business and every time you run a payroll, TrakPay will receive your payroll reports and do the leg work of reporting payroll to the state for you!

TrakPay will calculate your premium every pay period and collect the premium due from you via EFT transfer.  Then, when it comes time to report payroll and pay your premium every quarter, we will report the payroll you've done for all the pay periods you had in the quarter and remit the premium we've collected for the quarter to the Washington State Fund on your behalf.  The advantage of this service is that you can now pay as you go for your workers comp premium every pay period instead of just once quarterly, and that we'll handle all the payroll reporting and premium payments for you!

Even if you don't have a payroll service handling your payroll InsuranceTrak can still work with you to collect your payroll information and handle your reporting to the state fund for you.

Workers Compensation rates in Washington State

The rate you pay for workers comp premium to the Washington State Fund is based on your risk class code which is specific to the type of business you do.  If you have a riskier type of business meaning your employees have a greater chance of getting injured on the job, then you'll most likely have a higher rate and pay more premium for your workers comp insurance.

You can find your workers comp class code and rate here.

Give InsuranceTrak a call today to learn more about how we can help you with reporting payroll and paying premiums to the Washington State Fund with our industry leading pay as you go workers comp software as a service through TrakPay.