Senate Bill No. 149

(By Senators Wiedebusch and Grubb)

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[Introduced January 23, 1995; referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-four, article two, chapter forty-eight-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to decreasing the time employers have between the date of hiring and the date of reporting that information to the child advocate office.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That section twenty-four, article two, chapter forty-eight-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 2. WEST VIRGINIA CHILD ADVOCATE OFFICE.

§48A-2-24. Employment and income reporting.

(a) Upon notice by the director of the child advocate office, and except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) of this section, all employers doing business
in the state of West Virginia shall report to the child advocate office:
(1) The hiring of any person who resides or works in this state to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings; and

(2) The rehiring or return to work of any employee who resides or works in this state.

(b) Employers are not required to report the hiring, rehiring or return to work of any person who:

(1) Is employed for less than one month's duration; or

(2) Is employed sporadically so that the employee will be paid for less than three hundred fifty hours during a continuous six-month period; or

(3) Has gross earnings of less than three hundred dollars per month.

(c) The director of the child advocate office may establish additional exemptions to reduce unnecessary or burdensome reporting.

(d) Employers may report by mailing to the child advocate office a copy of the employee's W-4 form, by transmitting magnetic tape in a compatible format, or by any other means mutually agreed to by the employer and by the child advocate office to achieve timely and complete reporting.

(e) Employers shall submit a report within seven
days of the date of the hiring, rehiring or return to work of the employee. The report shall include the employee's name, address, social security number and date of birth and the employer's name and address, any different address of the payroll office and the employer's federal tax identification number.
(f) An employer of an obligor shall provide to the child advocate office, upon its written request, information regarding the obligor's employment, wages or salary, medical insurance and location of employment. The information required under this subsection is in addition to the information required by subsection (e) of this section.

(g) An employer who fails to report in accordance with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars.

(h) Employers required to report under this section may assess each employee so reported one dollar for the administrative costs of reporting.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to decrease the time span between the hiring date of an employee and the date that employment is reported to the Child Advocate Office.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.