WA WARN Act: Triggers, Notice Rules, and Penalties

The Washington WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more employees in the state to give at least 60 days’ written notice before a covered business closing, mass layoff, or sustained reduction in hours. The law, formally the Securing Timely Notification and Benefits for Laid-Off Employees Act, took effect on July 27, 2025. It runs alongside the federal WARN Act but reaches smaller layoffs and carries its own penalties, so employers planning a reduction in Washington have to clear both statutes at once.

Which Employers and Workers the Law Covers

The statute applies to any business enterprise employing 100 or more people in Washington.¹ Headcount is measured across every company site in the state, not just the location where the layoff will happen. Because the law uses the term “business enterprise,” public employers are not automatically swept in the way private businesses are.

Not everyone on the payroll counts as a protected employee. A worker qualifies only if they have been employed for at least six of the 12 months before the layoff.¹ Part-time employees are carved out: those who average fewer than 20 hours per week, or who have worked fewer than six of the preceding 12 months, do not count. A collective bargaining agreement with its own definition of part-time controls instead.² Part-timers are excluded both from the threshold that triggers notice and from the group entitled to receive it.

What Triggers the 60-Day Notice

Three kinds of workforce changes start the clock.

Business Closing

A business closing is a permanent or temporary shutdown of a single employment site, or of one or more facilities or operating units within it, that costs 50 or more non-part-time employees their jobs.² There is no rolling time window for closings, so every job loss connected to the shutdown counts.

Mass Layoff

A mass layoff is a reduction in force not tied to a closing that eliminates jobs for 50 or more non-part-time employees within any rolling 30-day period.² Hitting 50 affected employees is enough on its own; no percentage-of-workforce test applies.

Reduction in Hours

A less obvious trigger is a sustained schedule cut. If 50 or more employees have their hours cut by more than half in each month of a six-month stretch, the law treats that as an employment loss even though no one was formally laid off.² Employers phasing in cuts gradually sometimes cross this line without noticing.

Separations That Do Not Count

Voluntary resignations, retirements, and discharges for cause are not employment losses under the statute. Relocations and consolidations are also excluded when the employer offers the affected worker a transfer to another site within reasonable commuting distance, with no more than a six-month break in employment.²

Who Gets the Notice and What Goes In It

Written notice has to reach three recipients at least 60 days before the first separation: each affected employee (or their union representative, if one exists), the Washington Employment Security Department, and the chief elected official of the local government where the layoff or closure will occur.

The notice must give recipients enough information to understand the scope and timing of the layoff. That means the anticipated date of the first separation, the expected schedule for later separations, whether bumping rights allow senior employees to displace junior ones, and the name and contact information of a company representative who can answer questions from state officials and workers. The Employment Security Department publishes guidance on content and format.

Delivery matters too. Notices must go out in writing through a method reasonably designed to ensure actual receipt. Boilerplate inserted in regular paychecks or verbal announcements do not satisfy the requirement.

When the Full 60 Days Is Not Required

A handful of situations allow a shortened notice period. If the exception covers only part of the 60-day window, the employer owes notice as soon as the exception no longer applies, and any employer invoking an exception must document the basis for it with the state.

Faltering Company

An employer actively pursuing financing or new business that would allow it to avoid or postpone the layoff can qualify. Unlike the federal WARN Act, which limits this exception to plant closings, Washington extends it to mass layoffs as well. The employer has to show that public notice would have jeopardized the deal.

Unforeseeable Business Circumstances

When conditions the employer could not reasonably have predicted 60 days ahead cause the layoff, the period can be shortened. A sudden loss of a major contract or an unexpected economic shock can qualify. Notice is still owed as soon as the circumstance becomes foreseeable.

Natural Disaster

A layoff or closing caused directly by a flood, earthquake, wildfire, or similar event can be exempt. The word is “directly” — an indirect ripple through a supply chain or customer base does not qualify.

Construction Projects

Workers hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to a particular portion of a construction project are not entitled to 60-day notice when that portion ends. On multi-employer construction projects, employees subject to a full union referral or dispatch system are similarly exempt.³

What Noncompliance Costs

An employer that skips the notice or cuts it short faces two separate categories of exposure.

Liability to Each Affected Worker

For every day of the violation, the employer owes each affected employee back pay at the worker’s final rate or their average rate over the preceding three years, whichever is higher.⁴ The employer also owes the value of any benefits the worker would have received, including medical expenses the employer’s benefit plan would have covered. An employee who has to sue to collect can be awarded reasonable attorney fees and court costs on top.⁵

Civil Penalty to the State

An employer that fails to notify the Employment Security Department is separately subject to a civil penalty of up to $500 for each day of the violation. That penalty is owed to the state and runs independently of what the employer owes its workers.

Three-Week Safe Harbor

Quick action after a missed notice can cut off the penalties. Within three weeks of the layoff date, the employer must pay each affected employee back pay for every day of the violation (capped at 60 days) and the value of any lost benefits.⁴ Miss the three-week window and the safe harbor is gone.

How the State Law Differs From Federal WARN

The federal and state laws overlap but do not match, so employers in Washington have to comply with both. The practical differences:

The federal mass layoff threshold is either 500 workers or a combination of 50 workers plus at least one-third of the workforce. Washington’s triggers at 50 affected employees regardless of workforce share.²
Federal WARN aggregates smaller layoffs over a 90-day window. Washington looks only at a rolling 30-day period for mass layoffs.
The federal faltering company exception applies only to plant closings. Washington extends it to mass layoffs.
Washington’s $500-per-day civil penalty attaches to failures to notify the Employment Security Department. The federal $500-per-day penalty attaches to failures to notify local government.

Where the two laws overlap, the stricter rule controls. Because Washington’s mass layoff threshold is lower, the state law usually sets the floor. Any employer planning a significant reduction in force in Washington should evaluate both statutes together before setting a notice date.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.95.010 – Definitions
2
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.45.010 – Definitions
3
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code SB 5525 House Bill Report
4
Employment Security Department. WARN Requirements
5
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.95.040 – Liability for Failure to Provide Notice