5468877 Resolution 21-91, Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Congressional Review Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2015

A RESOLUTION

 

21-91

 

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

May 5, 2015

 

 

To amend, on an emergency basis, due to congressional review, the Minimum Wage Act Revision Act of 1992 to exempt an employer from keeping precise time records for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional, as well as certain other, employees; to require an employer or a temporary staffing firm to provide notice regarding payment to an employee in a second language if the Mayor has made available a translation of the sample notice template in that second language and the employer knows that second language to be the employee’s primary language or the employee requests notice in that second language; and to require the Mayor to make available, in any language required for a vital document under the Language Access Act of 2004, a translation of the sample template to be used by an employer or a temporary staffing firm when providing notice to an employee regarding payment; and to amend section 2 of An Act To provide for the payment and collection of wages in the District of Columbia to continue to exempt an employer from paying wages to bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees at least twice during each calendar month; provided, that the employer pays wages to such employees at least once per month.

           

            RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Congressional Review Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2015”.

 

            Sec. 2.   (a) In 2014, the Council passed the Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act of 2014, effective February 26, 2015 (D.C. Law 20-157; 62 DCR 3603)(“Act”).     

            (b)  Subsequently, the Council passed clarifying and technical corrections to the Act through an emergency measure, the Wage Theft Prevention Correction and Clarification Emergency Act of 2014, effective December 29, 2014 (D.C. Act 20-544; 62 DCR 243), and corresponding temporary legislation, the Wage Theft Prevention Correction and Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2014, effective March 13, 2015 (D.C. Law 20-240; 62 DCR 4511).

            (c)  Since passage of these measures, several unintended consequences impacting salaried workers have been identified, including the requirement that all employees, including white-collar, salaried employees, be paid at least twice per month, the requirement that employers keep records of the “precise time worked” each day and each workweek by all employees, including those not compensated on an hourly or other unit-of-time basis, and the requirement that an employer provide notice to an employee regarding payment in an employee’s primary language, without providing a limit on the languages in which that notice must be furnished.

            (d)  It was not the Council’s intent to require that white-collar, salaried employees be paid at least twice a month or to require an employer to keep records of the precise time worked by all employees, including those not compensated on an hourly or other unit-of-time basis. Further, requiring notice to be furnished in any language that might be an employee’s primary language will be unnecessarily burdensome and costly.

            (e)  In response, the Council passed further clarifying and technical corrections through an emergency measure, the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2015, effective February 26, 2015 (D.C. Act 21-8; 62 DCR 2669) (the “emergency legislation”) and corresponding temporary legislation, the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2015, enacted on March 27, 2015 (D.C. Act 21-38; 62 DCR 4552) (the “temporary legislation”).

            (f)  The emergency legislation is set to expire on May 27, 2015.  The temporary legislation is not projected to become law until June 4, 2015.

            (g) It is important that the provisions of the emergency legislation continue in effect, without interruption, until the temporary legislation is law.

 

Sec. 3.  The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2015 be adopted after a single reading.

 

Sec. 4.  This resolution shall take effect immediately.