AN ACT relating to wage transparency.

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AN ACT relating to wage transparency. 1
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2
Section 1. KRS 337.010 is amended to read as follows: 3
(1) As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise: 4
(a) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department of Workplace 5
Standards under the direction and supervision of the secretary of th e 6
Education and Labor Cabinet; 7
(b) "Department" means the Department of Workplace Standards in the 8
Education and Labor Cabinet; 9
[(c) 1. "Wages" includes any compensation due to an employee by reason of 10
his or her employment, including salaries, commissions, vested vacation 11
pay, overtime pay, severance or dismissal pay, earned bonuses, and any 12
other similar advantages agreed upon by the employer and the employee 13
or provided to employees as an established policy. The wages shall be 14
payable in legal tender of the United States, checks on banks, direct 15
deposits, or payroll card accounts convertible into cash on demand at 16
full face value, subject to the allowances made in this chapter. However, 17
an employee may not be charged an activation fee and the payroll card 18
account shall provide the employee with the ability, without charge, to 19
make at least one (1) withdrawal per pay period for any amount up to 20
and including the full account balance. 21
2. For the purposes of calculating hourly wage rates for scheduled 22
overtime for professional firefighters, as defined in KRS 95A.210(8), 23
"wages" shall not include the distribution to qualified professional 24
firefighters by local governments of supplements received from the 25
Firefighters Foundation Program Fund. For the purposes of calculating 26
hourly wage rates for unscheduled overtime for professional firefighters, 27
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as defined in KRS 95A.210(9), "wages" shall inclu de the distribution to 1
qualified professional firefighters by local governments of supplements 2
received from the Firefighters Foundation Program Fund;] 3
(c)[(d)] "Employer" is any person, either individual, corporation, partnership, 4
agency, or firm who empl oys an employee and includes any person, either 5
individual, corporation, partnership, agency, or firm acting directly or 6
indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee;[ and] 7
(d)[(e)] "Employee" is any person employed by or suffered o r permitted to work 8
for an employer, except that: 9
1. Notwithstanding any voluntary agreement entered into between the 10
United States Department of Labor and a franchisee, neither a franchisee 11
nor a franchisee's employee shall be deemed to be an employee of the 12
franchisor for any purpose under this chapter; and 13
2. Notwithstanding any voluntary agreement entered into between the 14
United States Department of Labor and a franchisor, neither a franchisor 15
nor a franchisor's employee shall be deemed to be an employe e of the 16
franchisee for any purpose under this chapter. 17
For purposes of this paragraph, "franchisee" and "franchisor" have the same 18
meanings as in 16 C.F.R. sec. 436.1; 19
(e) "Job posting" means any advertisement for employment, whether printed or 20
electronic, that: 21
1. Is made by an employer for the purpose of attracting applications for 22
employment from potential employees; and 23
2. Describes the position the employer seeks to fill; 24
(f) 1. "Wages" includes any compensation due to an employee by reason of 25
his o r her employment, including salaries, commissions, vested 26
vacation pay, overtime pay, severance or dismissal pay, earned 27
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bonuses, and any other similar advantages agreed upon by the 1
employer and the employee or provided to employees as an established 2
policy. The wages shall be payable in legal tender of the United States, 3
checks on banks, direct deposits, or payroll card accounts convertible 4
into cash on demand at full face value, subject to the allowances made 5
in this chapter. However, an employee may not be charged an 6
activation fee and the payroll card account shall provide the employee 7
with the ability, without charge, to make at least one (1) withdrawal 8
per pay period for any amount up to and including the full account 9
balance. 10
2. For the purposes of ca lculating hourly wage rates for scheduled 11
overtime for professional firefighters, as defined in KRS 95A.210, 12
"wages" shall not include the distribution to qualified professional 13
firefighters by local governments of supplements received from the 14
Firefighters Foundation Program Fund. For the purposes of 15
calculating hourly wage rates for unscheduled overtime for 16
professional firefighters, as defined in KRS 95A.210, "wages" shall 17
include the distribution to qualified professional firefighters by local 18
governments of supplements received from the Firefighters 19
Foundation Program Fund; and 20
(g) "Wage range" means the range of wages an employer anticipates relying 21
on when setting wages for a position, and may include: 22
1. Reference to any applicable pay scale; 23
2. Previously determined range of wages for the position; 24
3. Actual range of wages for those employees currently holding 25
comparable positions; or 26
4. The employer's budgeted amount for that position. 27
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(2) As used in KRS 337.275 to 337.325, 337.345, and 337.385 to 337.405, unless the 1
context requires otherwise: 2
(a) "Agriculture" means farming in all its branches, including cultivation and 3
tillage of the soil; dairying; production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting 4
of any agricultural or horticultural commodity; r aising of livestock, bees, 5
furbearing animals, or poultry; and any practice, including any forestry or 6
lumbering operations, performed on a farm in conjunction with farming 7
operations, including preparation and delivery of produce to storage, to 8
market, or to carriers for transportation to market; 9
(b)[(a)] "Employee" is any person employed by or suffered or permitted to work 10
for an employer, but shall not include: 11
1. Any individual employed in agriculture; 12
2. Any individual employed in a bona fide executive , administrative, 13
supervisory, or professional capacity, or in the capacity of outside 14
salesman, or as an outside collector as the terms are defined by 15
administrative regulations of the commissioner; 16
3. Any individual employed by the United States; 17
4. Any individual employed in domestic service in or about a private 18
home. The provisions of this section shall include individuals employed 19
in domestic service in or about the home of an employer where there is 20
more than one (1) domestic servant regularly employed; 21
5. Any individual classified and given a certificate by the commissioner 22
showing a status of learner, apprentice, worker with a disability, 23
sheltered workshop employee, and student under administrative 24
procedures and administrative regulations prescrib ed and promulgated 25
by the commissioner. This certificate shall authorize employment at the 26
wages, less than the established fixed minimum fair wage rates, and for 27
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the period of time fixed by the commissioner and stated in the certificate 1
issued to the person; 2
6. Employees of retail stores, service industries, hotels, motels, and 3
restaurant operations whose average annual gross volume of sales made 4
for business done is less than ninety -five thousand dollars ($95,000) for 5
the five (5) preceding years exclusiv e of excise taxes at the retail level 6
or if the employee is the parent, spouse, child, or other member of his or 7
her employer's immediate family; 8
7. Any individual employed as a baby -sitter in an employer's home, or an 9
individual employed as a companion by a sick, convalescing, or elderly 10
person or by the person's immediate family, to care for that sick, 11
convalescing, or elderly person and whose princi pal duties do not 12
include housekeeping; 13
8. Any individual engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer; 14
9. Any individual subject to the provisions of KRS Chapters 7, 16, 27A, 15
30A, and 18A provided that the secretary of the Personnel Cabinet shall 16
have the authority to prescribe by administrative regulation those 17
emergency employees, or others, who shall receive overtime pay rates 18
necessary for the efficient operation of government and the protection of 19
affected employees; 20
10. Any employee employed by an establishment which is an organized 21
nonprofit camp, religious, or nonprofit educational conference center, if 22
it does not operate for more than two hundred ten (210) days in any 23
calendar year; 24
11. Any employee whose function is to provide twenty -four (24) hour 25
residential care on the employer's premises in a parental role to children 26
who are primarily dependent, neglected, and abused and who are in the 27
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care of private, nonprofit childcaring facilities licensed by the Cabinet 1
for Health and Family Services under KRS 199.640 to 199.670; 2
12. Any individual whose function is to provide twenty -four (24) hour 3
residential care in his or her own home as a family caregiver, family 4
home provider, or adult foster care provider and who is approved to 5
provide family caregiver services to an adult with a disability through a 6
contractual relationship with a community board for mental health or 7
individuals with an intellectual disability established under KRS 8
210.370 to 210.460 or through a contractual relationship wi th a certified 9
waiver provider as defined in 907 KAR 7:005 sec. 1(5), or is certified or 10
licensed by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to provide adult 11
foster care; 12
13. A direct seller as defined in Section 3508(b)(2) of the Internal Revenue 13
Code of 1986; 14
14. Any individual whose function is to provide behavior support services, 15
behavior programming services, case management services, community 16
living support services, positive behavior support services, or respite 17
services through a contractual re lationship with a certified waiver 18
provider, as defined in 907 KAR 7:005 sec. 1(5), pursuant to a 1915(c) 19
home and community based services waiver program, as defined in 907 20
KAR 7:005 sec. 1(2); or 21
15. Any individual employed to play baseball who is compen sated pursuant 22
to the terms of a contract and a collective bargaining agreement that 23
expressly provides for wages and working conditions; 24
[(b) "Agriculture" means farming in all its branches, including cultivation and 25
tillage of the soil; dairying; product ion, cultivation, growing, and harvesting 26
of any agricultural or horticultural commodity; raising of livestock, bees, 27
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furbearing animals, or poultry; and any practice, including any forestry or 1
lumbering operations, performed on a farm in conjunction with farming 2
operations, including preparation and delivery of produce to storage, to 3
market, or to carriers for transportation to market;] 4
(c) "Gratuity" means voluntary monetary contribution received by an employee 5
from a guest, patron, or customer for services rendered; 6
(d) "Tipped employee" means any employee engaged in an occupation in which 7
he or she customarily and regularly receives more than thirty dollars ($30) per 8
month in tips; and 9
(e) "U.S.C." means the United States Code. 10
SECTION 2. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 337 IS CREATED TO 11
READ AS FOLLOWS: 12
In every job posting, the employer responsible for the job posting shall disclose the 13
wages or wage range, as well as a general description of all benefits or other 14
compensation associated with the position described in the job posting. 15
Section 3. KRS 95A.250 is amended to read as follows: 16
(1) (a) An eligible local government shall be entitled to receive an annual supplement 17
of three thou sand dollars ($3,000) and, beginning July 1, 2018, an annual 18
supplement of four thousand dollars ($4,000) for each qualified professional 19
firefighter it employs, plus an amount equal to the required employer's 20
contribution on the supplement to the defined benefit pension plan, or to a 21
plan qualified under Section 401(a) or Section 457 of the Internal Revenue 22
Code of 1954 as amended. 23
(b) The employer's contribution to any of these plans on the supplement shall not 24
exceed the required employer's contribution to the County Employees 25
Retirement System pursuant to KRS Chapter 78 for the hazardous duty 26
category. The pension contribution on the supplement shall be paid whether 27
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the professional firefighter entered the system under hazardous duty coverage 1
or nonhazardous coverage. 2
(c) The local unit of government shall pay the amount received for retirement 3
coverage to the appropriate retirement system to cover the required employer 4
contribution on the supplement. 5
(d) Should the foundation program funds be insufficien t to pay employer 6
contributions to the system, then the total amount available for pension 7
payments shall be prorated to each eligible government so that each receives 8
the same percentage of required pension costs attributable to the supplement. 9
(e) 1. In addition to the payments received under paragraphs (a) and (b) of this 10
subsection, but only if sufficient funds are available to fully reimburse 11
each eligible local government for the employer contributions to the 12
pension system, each local government shal l receive an administrative 13
expense reimbursement in an amount equal to seven and sixty -five one-14
hundredths percent (7.65%) of the total annual supplement received 15
greater than three thousand one hundred dollars ($3,100) for each 16
qualified professional fir efighter it employs, subject to the cap 17
established by subparagraph 3. of this paragraph. 18
2. The local government may use the moneys received under this 19
paragraph in any manner it deems necessary to partially cover the costs 20
of administering the payments r eceived under paragraph (a) of this 21
subsection. 22
3. The total amount distributed under this paragraph shall not exceed the 23
total sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for each 24
fiscal year. If there are insufficient funds to provide for full 25
reimbursement as provided in subparagraph 1. of this paragraph, then 26
the amount shall be distributed pro rata to each eligible local 27
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government so that each receives the same percentage attributable to its 1
total receipt of the cash salary supplement. 2
(2) (a) Each qualified professional firefighter, whose local government receives a 3
supplement pursuant to subsection (1)(a) of this section due to employment of 4
the firefighter, shall receive distribution of the supplement from that local 5
government in twelve (1 2) equal monthly installments with his or her pay for 6
the last pay period of each month. The monthly distribution shall be 7
calculated by dividing the supplement amount established in subsection (1)(a) 8
of this section by twelve (12). 9
(b) The s upplement disbursed to a qualified professional firefighter pursuant to 10
this section shall not be considered "wages" as defined by KRS 11
337.010(1)(f)[(c)]1. and shall not be included in the hourly wage rate for 12
calculation of overtime pursuant to KRS 337.28 5 for scheduled overtime. The 13
supplement shall be included in the hourly wage rates for calculation of 14
overtime for unscheduled overtime pursuant to KRS 337.285. 15
(c) To determine the addition to the hourly wage rate for calculation of overtime 16
on unschedul ed overtime, the annual supplement shall be divided by two 17
thousand eighty (2,080). The overtime rate for unscheduled overtime shall be 18
calculated by adding the quotient, which is the amount of the annual 19
supplement divided by two thousand eighty (2,080), to the hourly wage rate 20
and multiplying the total by one and one -half (1.5). The enhanced overtime 21
rate shall be paid only for unscheduled overtime. Scheduled overtime shall be 22
paid at one and one -half (1.5) times the regular hourly wage rate, excluding 23
the supplement. 24
(3) (a) The Kentucky Community and Technical College System shall be entitled to 25
receive annually a supplement equal to the amount determined in subsection 26
(1) of this section for each Kentucky fire and rescue training coordinator 27
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employed by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System who 1
meets the qualifications for individual firefighters required in KRS 95A.230, 2
plus an amount equal to the required employer's contribution on the 3
supplement to the defined benefit pension plan. 4
(b) The Department of Military Affairs shall be entitled to receive annually a 5
supplement equal to the amount determined in subsection (1) of this section 6
for each civilian firefighter employed by the Department of Military Affairs 7
who meets the qualifications for individual firefighters required in KRS 8
95A.230, plus an amount equal to the required employer's contribution on the 9
supplement to the defined benefit pension plan. 10
(c) Each fire and rescue training coordinator employed by the Kentucky 11
Community and Te chnical College System and each civilian firefighter 12
employed by the Department of Military Affairs, whose employer receives a 13
supplement pursuant to this subsection, shall receive distribution from that 14
employer of the supplement which his or her qualific ations brought to the 15
employer. The supplement distributed shall be in addition to his or her regular 16
salary. 17
Section 4. KRS 337.020 is amended to read as follows: 18
Every employer doing business in this state shall, as often as semimonthly, pay to each of 19
its employees all wages or salary earned to a day not more than eighteen (18) days prior 20
to the date of that payment. Any employee who is absent at the time fixed for payment, or 21
who, for any other reason, is not paid at that time, shall be paid thereafter at any time 22
upon six (6) days' demand. No employer subject to this section shall, by any means, 23
secure exemption from it. Every such employee shall have a right of action against any 24
such employer for the full amount of his or her wages due on each regular pay day. The 25
provisions of this section do not apply to those individuals defined in KRS 26
337.010(2)(b)[(a)]2. 27