Employers - Look before you Leap - Keep your Staff Employed even if you are not an essential business. Especially if you are not an essential business!

If you are a worker and your employer owes you unpaid wages you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor and Industry

Dear Washington State Employers,

Please take a deep breath and assess your options before laying off or terminating workers right now. The CARES Act that just passed will provide "loans" to businesses with employees who retain those employees. The loans may be forgiven for employers who retain staff over a period of time. If you do lay off or fire your staff - pay them what you owe them. That is still the law.

Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program, one of the largest sections of the CARES Act, is the most important provision in the new stimulus bill for most small businesses. This new program sets aside $350 billion in government-backed loans from private banks that can, in some cases, be converted to grants, which means that if you meet the requirements you won't need to pay the loan back.

How does the program work?

Paycheck Protection loans will come from private banks. Currently, the SBA guarantees small business loans that are given out by a network of more than 800 lenders across the U.S. The Paycheck Protection Program creates a type of emergency loan that can be forgiven when used to maintain payroll through June and expands the network beyond SBA so that more banks, credit unions and lenders can issue those loans. The basic purpose is to incentivize small businesses to not lay off workers and to rehire laid-off workers that lost jobs due to COVID-19 disruptions.

Click HERE for more information about the Paycheck Protection Program.

If you are a worker and your employer owes you unpaid wages you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor and Industry