Job protection requirements for employers

Understand your legal responsibilities when employees take Paid Family and Medical Leave. This information reflects updates from the 2025 legislative session, effective from January 1, 2026.

Note: Some of the details below may change in the coming months as ESD works to finalize rulemaking related to the changes. Please check back between now and the end of 2025 for the latest information.

What is job protection?

Job protection means that eligible employees must be restored to their job, or an equivalent one, after returning from approved Paid Leave. You cannot terminate, demote, or penalize an employee for taking leave.

Restoration includes:

The same or equivalent job title
The same pay and benefits
The same working conditions

Who must provide job protection?

Starting January 1, 2026, most employers in Washington state with 25 or more employees must provide job protection to eligible employees taking Paid Leave.

The qualifying employer size limit will be reduced from 50 or more employees to 25 or more employees
The required employee tenure will be reduced from 12 months to 180 days
The minimum hours worked requirement will be eliminated
Voluntary plan requirements will be the same as the state plan requirements above

Summary of eligibility requirements

Year	Employer size	Employee tenure
2025	50+ employees	12 months and 1,250 hours
2026	25+ employees	180 calendar days (6 months)
2027	15+ employees	180 calendar days (6 months)
2028 and beyond	8+ employees	180 calendar days (6 months)

If both conditions are met, you must restore the employee’s job when they return from leave.

Learn more about voluntary plans at https://paidleave.wa.gov/voluntary-plans/.

Important

Any employee that is returning from Paid Leave on or after January 1, 2026, is entitled to job protection based on the 2026 eligibility requirements. This is true even if the leave started before January 1, 2026.

Example: An employee at a business with 25 employees, who has worked there for more than 6 months, takes 5 weeks of Paid Leave. The Paid Leave starts in December of 2025 and ends in January of 2026. Because this employee is returning to work on or after January 1, 2026, they are entitled to job restoration.

Exceptions to job protection

Highly paid employees

You may deny restoration to salaried employees in the top 10% of earners within 75 miles of the workplace only if:

Restoration would cause substantial economic harm
You provide written notice during leave
The employee elects not to return after receiving the notice

If an employee requests to have their employment restored after they have received written notice, the employer is obliged to reassess whether restoring the employee will cause substantial economic harm. If the employer confirms their assessment, then the employee’s position is no longer protected.

Failure to return to work on time

Unless you have a written agreement to extend the leave time, you are not required to restore the job if the employee does not return by:

The first scheduled workday after leave ends, or
After 16 weeks of leave in a 52-week period (or 18 weeks for pregnancy-related incapacity)

The position would not have existed

If you can show that the employees’ position would not have existed, even if they had not taken leave, then you are not required to restore the position when their leave ends. Reasons may include:

Layoffs or closing the business
Temporary or project-based role ends

Reference RCW 49.45.060 for additional details.

Medical clearance

If the leave is for the employee’s own medical condition, you may require a certification from their healthcare provider that they are fit to return to work, only if:

You have a policy that applies the same requirement to all employees who take medical leave

Required notice to employees

If you are required to provide job protection to employees on Paid Leave, then after an employee has been on leave for 14 days you must provide written notice informing the employee when:

Their job protection expires, and
They are due to return to work

How is employee count of an employer determined for job protection?

If an employer had 25 or more employees in Washington state at any point during the current or preceding year, they are considered to have met the size requirement for job protection. In this case, an employee is any individual who appears on the employer’s payroll, including employees on paid or unpaid leave.

Healthcare coverage requirements

Starting January 1, 2026, if an employee qualifies for job protection under PFML, you must:

Maintain their health insurance as if they were still working
Allow them to continue paying their share of premiums

You are not required to maintain coverage if:

The employee does not qualify for job protection
They are no longer employed when they apply for Paid Leave
They fail to return within the allowed timeframe

Important

If you have an employee who qualifies for job protection and starts leave in 2025 and returns to work after January 2026, then this employee will be eligible to have health benefits continued starting on Jan 1, 2026, until they return to work.

Coordinating Paid Leave with FMLA

Starting in 2026, you may count FMLA job protected leave against the employee’s Paid Leave job protection time (typically 16 weeks per year).

If the employee takes unpaid FMLA leave instead of Paid Leave, you must provide written notice that includes:

How the leave counts toward Paid Leave job protection
Defining the 12-month period that you designate as the FMLA leave year
Remaining job-protected time
Confirmation that Paid Leave benefit eligibility is unaffected

Note: This is entirely optional. You may choose not to count FMLA job protected leave against Paid Leave, in which case no action is needed.

Not all employees are eligible for FMLA. You must work for a covered organization to take FMLA leave. FMLA covers:

Private organizations with at least 50 employees
All government agencies and public and private elementary and secondary schools

Timing

You must provide the notice:

Within 5 business days of leave request or start
At least monthly during the 12-month FMLA leave year

Failure to comply

Failure to comply with Paid Leave obligations is considered to be an Unlawful Act. Employers who fail to comply with Paid Leave job protection requirements may face serious consequences.

All employee complaints alleging that an employer has not met their legal obligations to restore a job or to protect employment during Paid Leave are investigated by the Employment Security Department (ESD).

If ESD finds that a violation has occurred, the department may order the employer to pay damages to the employee.

You can find details about the complaints process on our Unlawful Acts Complaint form.

To help stay compliant, you should:

Ensure that you understand your obligations under the Paid Family and Medical Leave program
Clearly document all communications with employees about leave requests
Restore qualified employees to their same or equivalent positions when they return from leave

Please check back between now and the end of 2025 for updates and more resources.