OLS Announces Hotel Employees Adjusted Healthcare Expenditures Rates for 2021

The Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) has released adjusted rates for 2021 healthcare expenditures required by the Improving Access to Medical Care Hotel Employees Ordinance, Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) 14.28. 

This applies to Seattle hotels or motels with 100 or more guest rooms or an “ancillary hotel business” of 50 or more employees worldwide. 

Covered employers must make healthcare expenditures to or on behalf of each covered employee to improve their access to medical care. The amounts of the healthcare expenditure are adjusted each calendar year. Click here to see the OLS website and resources on this law.

For the 2021 calendar year (January 1 to December 31, 2021), the adjusted rates are:

1. $437 per month for an employee with no spouse, domestic partner, or dependents
2. $743 per month for an employee with only dependents
3. $874 per month for an employee with only a spouse or domestic partner
4. $1,310 per month for an employee with a spouse or domestic partner and one or more dependents

This law has varied effective dates, depending on the type and size of the covered employers. For some, it went into effect on July 1, 2020. For more information about when the law goes into effect for different employers, please visit the Office of Labor Standards webpage on this law.

OLS says an updated Questions and Answers document and Hotel Employee and Ancillary Hotel Employee Notices of Rights posters containing these adjusted rates will be available before the adjusted rates take effect. Currently, both posters containing the 2020 rates, available in 11 different languages, can be found here.  

For more information on the Improving Access to Medical Care for Hotel Employees Ordinance and the other Hotel Employees Protections Ordinances please visit the Office of Labor Standards webpage.