(1) If an employee files a wage complaint with the department, the department shall investigate the wage complaint. Unless otherwise resolved, the department shall issue either a citation and notice of assessment or a determination of compliance: (a) No later than sixty days after the date on which the department received the wage complaint, unless the department extends this time period for good cause; and (b) no later than three years after the date on which the cause of action accrued, unless a longer period of time applies under law. Such cause of action for wage claims accrues from the date when the wages are due. The department shall send the citation and notice of assessment or the determination of compliance to both the employer and the employee by service of process or certified mail to their last known addresses.

     (2) If the department determines that an employer has violated a wage payment requirement and issues to the employer a citation and notice of assessment, the department may order the employer to pay employees all wages owed, including interest of one percent per month on all wages owed, to the employee.

     (3) If the department determines that the violation of the wage payment requirement was a willful violation, the department also may order the employer to pay the department a civil penalty as specified in (a) of this subsection.

     (a) A civil penalty for a willful violation of a wage payment requirement shall be not less than five hundred dollars or an amount equal to ten percent of the total amount of unpaid wages, whichever is greater. The maximum civil penalty for a willful violation of a wage payment requirement shall be twenty thousand dollars.

     (b) The department may not assess a civil penalty if the employer reasonably relied on: (i) A rule related to any wage payment requirement; (ii) a written order, ruling, approval, opinion, advice, determination, or interpretation of the director; or (iii) an interpretive or administrative policy issued by the department and filed with the office of the code reviser. In accordance with the department's retention schedule obligations under chapter 40.14 RCW, the department shall maintain a complete and accurate record of all written orders, rulings, approvals, opinions, advice, determinations, and interpretations for purposes of determining whether an employer is immune from civil penalties under (b)(ii) of this subsection.

     (c) The department shall waive any civil penalty assessed against an employer under this section if the director determines that the employer has provided payment to the employee of all wages that the department determined that the employer owed to the employee, including interest, within ten business days of the employer's receipt of the citation and notice of assessment from the department.

     (d) The department may waive at any time a civil penalty assessed under this section, in whole or in part, if the director determines that the employer paid all wages owed to an employee.

     (e) The department shall deposit civil penalties paid under this section in the supplemental pension fund established under RCW 51.44.033.

     (4) Upon payment by an employer, and acceptance by an employee, of all wages and interest assessed by the department in a citation and notice of assessment issued to the employer, the fact of such payment by the employer, and of such acceptance by the employee, shall: (a) Constitute a full and complete satisfaction by the employer of all specific wage payment requirements addressed in the citation and notice of assessment; and (b) bar the employee from initiating or pursuing any court action or other judicial or administrative proceeding based on the specific wage payment requirements addressed in the citation and notice of assessment. The citation and notice of assessment shall include a notification and summary of the specific requirements of this subsection.

[2006 c 89 § 2.]

NOTES:

     Captions not law -- 2006 c 89: See note following RCW 49.48.082.