The Employment Security Department reported in June that Washington’s average annual wage grew by 5.0 percent in 2017 to $61,887—representing the largest percentage increase year over year since 2007.

The average weekly wage rose from $1,133 in 2016 to $1,190 in 2017. These figures include only those wages that are covered by unemployment insurance.

Much of the increase was driven by a 7.7 percent increase in total earnings, which grew by nearly $14.1 billion in 2017. Overall, the average number of workers in Washington covered by unemployment insurance grew by just over 81,790 in 2017.

The industries with the largest average wage growth in 2017 were retail trade, up 14.5 percent; information, up 8.2 percent; and accommodation and food services, up 6.9 percent.

The average annual wage is used to calculate unemployment benefits for jobless workers. The minimum weekly unemployment benefit, calculated at 15 percent of the average weekly wage, will increase by $9 to $178, for new claims opened on or after July 1. At the same time, the maximum weekly benefit, which is the greater of $496 or 63 percent of the average weekly wage, will increase by $36 to $749.

Currently, about 20 percent of unemployment insurance claims are paid the maximum benefit amount, and 10 percent receive the minimum.

The state average wage also is used by the Department of Labor & Industries in calculating worker’s compensation benefits.

As you may know, PSWCT implemented two updates to its online incident and claim reporting processes in June 2018. These changes streamlined our online incident and claim reporting forms and made the Accident/Incident Report process completely paperless.

Revised Incident Submission Form
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received on the online incident submission process we rolled out in September 2017 is that the dual incident/claim submission form requested too much personal information from those employees who only need to file an incident report.

We have reorganized the incident submission form to only show incident-related fields initially. The claim-related fields, which require a higher level of personal information, appear only if the employee selects “Yes” in response to the Medical Care Sought question. We have also added additional language to clarify when to select “Yes” in response to the Medical Care Sought question, and to provide information on how to file a claim later if an employee selects “No” initially.

We anticipated that restructuring the form in this way may create confusion for employees who initially do not want to file a claim but later realize that they need to. To rectify that, we created a “grant access” process that allows a PSWCT claim specialist to send the employee a link to their online incident form to change their answer to the Medical Care Sought question to “Yes.” This will bring up the rest of the claim-related fields and they will be able to file their workers’ compensation claim by amending the information originally submitted.

Origami now automatically sends claimants a copy of their SIF-2 after they file their claim, so they have immediate access to their claim number when seeking medical treatment.

Accident/Incident Supervisor Section
The other update is to our Accident/Incident Report process. In the past, the Accident/Incident Report was generated as a Word document after an employee submitted incident information online. This process required a lot of manual work on the part of the district to route the hard copy of the form to all parties.

In our revised process, after an employee files an incident report, a link to an online form is sent to the district liaison to be forwarded to the employee’s supervisor. The supervisor will have 14 days to complete their portion of the Accident/Incident Report online using that link. After the supervisor hits “Submit,” a complete Accident/Incident Report will be emailed to the district liaison and the employee’s supervisor.

The form will be saved to the Incident file in Origami, and the data will be captured in reportable fields, which will enable us to provide you with more robust reporting for your safety committees. Based on additional feedback, we have also added questions regarding bloodborne pathogens and will be working with interested districts to integrate that process into our current systems.

Clairmonte Cappelle,
Executive Director

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S CORNER

The qualities of leadership are not necessarily the first topic that comes to mind when talking about workers’ compensation and unemployment. We discuss risk management, safety, and the bottom line, but not always the overarching direction of our sector.

However, someone recently shared an article with me that made me think about how those qualities are reflected in PSWCT-UP’s mission — Lead the industry in claims and risk management solutions for regional educational communities.

The article discussed the values that inform the way we do business and our goal of improving the experience for our injured workers, school district members, and vendor partners. Our conversion to our new claims system, Origami Risk, is an example of our commitment to leadership in its broadest sense.

Vision: PSWCT-UP has a clear vision for our purpose, and we share the Puget Sound ESD’s vision of eliminating the opportunity gap by leading with racial equity. As an agency that provides risk management services for school districts, we do not provide the same level of direct support to students as some of our colleagues at Puget Sound ESD. We have taken time to reflect on how we can support the agency’s mission as a provider of indirect services and benefits to students. With the implementation of our new claims management system, we have added opportunities for injured workers to provide information such as language preference and heritage. We will also be reaching out to our school districts to identify ways we can better serve the diverse population of staff at our districts. We will be using this information to improve access to resources such as interpreters to ensure injured workers understand and are understood.

Serving: We know our role is to keep school district staff safe and healthy so they can do their important work of educating children.  Our new claims system has more robust data gathering and reporting capabilities.  This will allow us to identify trends and partner with our districts to recommend preventative measures.

Creativity: The conversion to Origami Risk has been a work in progress and continues to improve.  PSWCT-UP strives to build an environment that encourages feedback and creativity.  This extends to our district members.  Thanks to our resourceful and innovative members, we are turning our system into a tool that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Taking Risks: This year we will continue to invest in expanding the resources we are offering to our members, by continuing to build out our return-to-work program and focusing on process improvements in our new claims management system and workflows. Introducing a new claims system that is not used by any other ESD in the state is a risk.  But without courage we cannot make progress and improvements.

Improving: To fulfill our vision, we must constantly seek ways to improve how we operate.  We look for new tools and measurements to inform how we do business.  We will be reaching out to our members to identify how we are doing in the areas of claim management, pool administration, and loss control services. We hope that you will participate in these surveys and continue to provide feedback on our services when you see opportunities for improvement.

As we embark on the start of a new school year, I hope you will continue to consider the meaning of leadership and how we can work together to meet our goals.

Wildfire season is upon us, creating smoky conditions in the Puget Sound area. Wildfire smoke can have a negative impact on our region’s air quality, posing challenges for organizations responsible for keeping students safe.

The Washington State Department of Health is available to support you during this season. See below for links specifically for schools. We encourage you to visit their entire website for wildfire-related resources.

For schools and school districts:

• Check out this school activity guide that provides recommendations for recess, P.E., and athletic events and practices during smoky conditions.
• For recommendations for schools and buildings with mechanical ventilation, review their resource: Improving Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality during Wildfire Smoke Events (PDF).