Datatech has several customers that have employees perform work and report wages to both Washington and Oregon. It has been our recommendation to use the place of performance and localization guidelines to determine which state to report to for unemployment purposes. However, some customers have chosen to report UI to both states for an individual employee based on the location of the work.
How to Report Paid Family and Medical Leave Wages
This has caused the question of how to report Paid Family and Medical Leave wages. We recently reached out to the Paid Leave Oregon Department for clarification. They have confirmed that employees should only be reported to one state.
From the Paid Leave Oregon Team:
Thank you for reaching out to Paid Leave Oregon. If the work is regular in Oregon, they could be covered under Paid Leave Oregon. It would then depend on where the base of operations is, where the work is directed from, or where their residence is. The amount of hours worked should not determine which state wages are reported to. The employer would be reporting all wages for this employee based on the place of performance and localization guidelines.
If the work is performed in multiple states with regularity, including Oregon and Washington, from which state is the base of operations, or if there is no base of operations, where does direction and control come from?
a. If the base of operation or direction and control comes from Oregon, all of the employee’s wages associated are reportable to Oregon.
b. If the base of operation or direction and control comes from Washington, all of the employee’s wages and hours associated are reportable to Washington.
I have attached our Washington/Oregon Place of Performance Letter for your reference.
WA-OR-Place-of-Performance-Letter-October-2022.pdf
Please review our place of performance rules for additional clarification. You may also check out our website and sign up for email updates on the program.
Thank you again for your message.
The Paid Leave Oregon Team
Employers that report wages to both Washington and Oregon should use the guidelines to determine one state to report the employees wages to.
When entering a new employee or editing existing employees you can select this state in the State Taxes section of the Employee Entry > State for FML.
Reporting UI Wages
Employers that still report UI wages to both states for an individual employee should review the same parameters for determining where to report employee UI wages. If your Datatech software is set to report by state worked, and you would like to change to the recommended method of one state per employee, please contact our Support department for additional information.