WEST virginia legislature
2019 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 377
By Senator Maynard
[Introduced
January 21, 2019; Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §21-5C-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to minimum wage and maximum hours standards for employees; excluding seasonal amusement park workers from maximum hour requirements; and defining terms.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 5C. MINIMUM WAGE AND MAXIMUM HOURS STANDARDS FOR EMPLOYEES.
§21-5C-1. Definitions.
As used in this article:
(a) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Labor or his or her duly authorized representatives.
(b) “Wage and hour director” means the wage and hour director appointed by the Commissioner of Labor as Chief of the Wage and Hour Division.
(c) “Wage” means compensation due an employee by reason of his or her employment.
(d) “Employ” means to hire or permit to work.
(e) “Employer” includes the State of West Virginia, its agencies, departments, and all its political subdivisions, any individual, partnership, association, public or private corporation, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of any employer in relation to an employee; and who employs during any calendar week six or more employees as herein defined in any one separate, distinct, and permanent location or business establishment: Provided, That prior to January 1, 2015, the term “employer” does not include any individual, partnership, association, corporation, person or group of persons, or similar unit if 80 percent of the persons employed by him or her are subject to any federal act relating to minimum wage, maximum hours, and overtime compensation: Provided, however, That after December 31, 2014, for the purposes of §21-5C-3 of this code, the term “employer” does not include any individual, partnership, association, corporation, person or group of persons, or similar unit if 80 percent of the persons employed by him or her are subject to any federal act relating to maximum hours and overtime compensation.
(f) “Employee” includes any individual employed by an
employer but shall not include: (1) Any individual employed by the United
States; (2) any individual engaged in the activities of an educational,
charitable, religious, fraternal, or nonprofit organization where the
employer-employee relationship does not in fact exist, or where the services
rendered to such organizations are on a voluntary basis; (3) newsboys, shoeshine
boys, golf caddies, pinboys, and pin chasers in bowling lanes; (4) traveling
salesmen and outside salesmen; (5) services performed by an individual in the
employ of his or her parent, son, daughter, or spouse; (6) any individual
employed in a bona fide professional, executive, or administrative capacity;
(7) any person whose employment is for the purpose of on-the-job training; (8)
any person having a physical or mental handicap so severe as to prevent his or
her employment or employment training in any training or employment facility
other than a nonprofit sheltered workshop; (9) any individual employed in a
boys or girls summer camp; (10) any person 62 years of age or over who receives
old-age or survivors benefits from the Social Security Administration; (11) any
individual employed in agriculture as the word “agriculture” is defined in the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended; (12) any individual employed as a
firefighter by the state or agency thereof; (13) ushers in theaters; (14) any
individual employed on a part-time basis who is a student in any recognized
school or college; (15) any individual employed by a local or interurban
motorbus carrier; (16) so far as the maximum hours and overtime compensation
provisions of this article are concerned, any salesman, parts man, or mechanic
primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles, trailers, trucks, farm
implements, or aircraft if employed by a nonmanufacturing establishment
primarily engaged in the business of selling such vehicles to ultimate
purchasers; (17) any employee with respect to whom the United States Department
of Transportation has statutory authority to establish qualifications and
maximum hours of service; (18) any person employed on a per diem basis by the
Senate, the House of Delegates, or the Joint Committee on Government and
Finance of the Legislature of West Virginia, other employees of the Senate or
House of Delegates designated by the presiding officer thereof, and additional
employees of the Joint Committee on Government and Finance designated by such
joint committee; or (19) any person employed as a seasonal employee of a
commercial whitewater outfitter where the seasonal employee works less than
seven months in any one calendar year and, in such case, only for the limited
purpose of exempting the seasonal employee from the maximum wage provisions of
§21-5C-3 of this code; or (20) any person employed as a seasonal employee of
an amusement park where the seasonal employee works less than seven months in
any one calendar year and, in such case, only for the limited purpose of
exempting the seasonal employee from the maximum wage and hours provisions of
§21-5C-3 of this code.
(g) “Workweek” means a regularly recurring period of 168 hours in the form of seven consecutive 24-hour periods, need not coincide with the calendar week, and may begin any day of the calendar week and any hour of the day.
(h) “Hours worked” means the hours for which an employee
is employed: Provided, That in determining hours worked for the purposes
of §21-5C-2 and §21-5C-3 of this code, there shall be excluded any time spent
in changing clothes or washing at the beginning or end of each workday, time
spent in walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of
performance of the principal activity or activities which such the
employee is employed to perform and activities which are preliminary to or
postliminary to said the principal activity or activities,
subject to such exceptions as the commissioner may by rules and regulations
define.
(i) “Amusement park” means any person or organization which holds a permit for the operation of an amusement ride or amusement attraction under §21-10-1 et seq. of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exclude seasonal amusement park workers from the definition of “employee” for the purposes of maximum hours standards.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.