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Contact: 
Janelle Guthrie, Communications Director, 360-902-9289
Bill Tarrow, Deputy Communications Director, 360-902-9376

82 percent of employers will have the same tax rate or lower, average tax rate is the lowest in more than 20 years

OLYMPIA – The Employment Security Department has issued 2017 tax rate notices to employers and updated our Web site with all the new information. (https://www.esd.wa.gov/employer-taxes/determining-your-tax-rates)

The average tax rate will decrease from an estimated 1.38 percent in 2016 to an estimated 1.24 percent in 2017--the lowest in more than 20 years.

Tax rates in all 40 rate classes remained the same as in 2016, ranging from 0.10 to 5.7 percent (not counting delinquency taxes). About 82 percent of employers will move into a lower rate class or stay the same in 2017.

Highlights 

• The average total tax paid per employee will decline by $24 to $232.
• About 39 percent of all taxable employers are in rate-class 1, taxed at 0.10 percent. Ninety percent of employers in rate-class 1 have five or fewer employees.
• The experience-rated portion of the 2017 unemployment tax (paid by rate-classes 2 and higher) will be based on benefit payouts from July 2012 through June 2016.
• Unemployment tax collections will decrease from 2016 ($1.2 billion) to 2017 (about $893 million).
• Employers will pay unemployment taxes on the first $45,000 of each employee’s earnings in 2017.  For an employee earning $45,000 or more, the total tax for the year will range from $45 (employers in rate-class 1) to $2,565 (rate-class 40). On average, the total tax per employee will decline by $24 in 2017, to $232.

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