(1)(a) Except for services subject to RCW 50.44.010, 50.44.020, 50.44.030, or 50.50.010, the term “employment” includes an individual’s entire service as an officer or member of a crew of an American vessel wherever performed and whether in intrastate or interstate or foreign commerce, if the employer maintains within this state at the beginning of the pay period an operating office from which the operations of the vessel are ordinarily and regularly supervised, managed, directed, and controlled.

(b) The term “employment” does not include:

(i) Services performed by an individual on a boat engaged in catching fish or other forms of aquatic animal life under an arrangement with the owner or operator of the boat under which:

(A) The individual does not receive any cash remuneration except as provided in (b)(i)(B) and (C) of this subsection;

(B) The individual receives a share of the boat’s, or the boats’ in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life or a share of the proceeds from the sale of the catch; and

(C) The amount of the individual’s share depends on the amount of the boat’s, or the boats’ in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life, but only if the operating crew of the boat, or each boat from which the individual receives a share in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, is normally made up of fewer than ten individuals.

(ii) Services performed as an officer or member of the crew of a vessel not an American vessel and services on or in connection with an American vessel under a contract of service which is not entered into within the United States and during the performance of which the vessel does not touch at a port of the United States.

(2) For the purposes of this section, “American vessel” means any vessel documented or numbered under the laws of the United States, and includes any vessel which is neither documented or numbered under the laws of the United States nor documented under the laws of any foreign country if its crew is employed solely by one or more citizens or residents of the United States or corporations organized under the laws of the United States or of any state.

Conflict with federal requirements—2013 c 75: See note following RCW 50.24.160.