Dear Neighbors,
Anyone who owns or works for a Washington business that’s hit by the economic effects of the pandemic should consider using our state’s SharedWork program. It’s a way for small-to-medium-sized businesses to retain employees while decreasing costs. And it’s a way for employees to receive unemployment benefits that can largely offset their decreased pay. This is a true win-win program for businesses and employees.
SharedWork is a solution for businesses that need to open more slowly with reduced capacity and who want to provide their employees with an incentive to return. The program allows businesses to reduce the hours of their staff by 10% to 50%. Their employees will receive unemployment benefits for a partial wage replacement against those reduced hours.
Each employee on SharedWork will receive the wages for the hours they work, their calculated weekly benefit amount, and an additional $600 per week through the end of July.
The program is not just for private businesses. More than 200 employees of the City of Renton have been using SharedWork to save the city money and save jobs. It’s a partnership that helps keep workers connected to their employers and helps employers retain their employees.
You can find more information at https://esd.wa.gov/SharedWork.
If you’d like to follow what I’m working on, you can like my official legislative Facebook page here.
Please don’t hesitate to stay in touch. Stay safe and take care.
Always,
Senator Karen Keiser
Chair, Senate Labor & Commerce Committee
Senate President Pro Tempore
