Page 219 - Washington Nonprofit Handbook 2018 Edition

The statute provides as follows:

“Employee” includes any individual employed by an employer

but shall not include:

. . . .

(d) Any individual engaged in the activities of an
educational, charitable, religious, state or local
governmental body or agency, or nonprofit organization
where the employer-employee relationship does not in
fact exist or where the services are rendered to such
organizations gratuitously.

RCW 49.46.010(3) (emphasis added).

The Washington Department of Labor and Industries has issued an
Administrative Policy Statement listing the criteria for whether workers are truly
volunteers exempt from the WMWA:

• Individuals will be considered volunteers only where their services are
offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied,
from an employer.

• Individuals who volunteer or donate their services, usually on a part-
time basis, for public service or for humanitarian objectives, not as
employees and without contemplation of pay, are not considered
employees of the entities that received their services.

• [I]f [volunteers] are paid for their services beyond reimbursement for
expenses, reasonable benefits or a nominal fee, they are employees
and not volunteers. Individuals do not lose their volunteer status if
they receive a nominal fee or stipend.

• An individual will not be considered a volunteer if he or she is
otherwise employed by the same agency or organization to perform
similar or identical services as those for which the individual proposes
to volunteer.

Minimum Wage Act Applicability, Admin. Policy No. ES.A.1, at 3 (rev. ed. 2014),
http://www.lni.wa.gov/workplacerights/files/policies/esa1.pdf.

WASHINGTON NONPROFIT HANDBOOK -208- 2018