By:  Cain                                             S.B. No. 1310
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the payment of wages through electronic funds transfer.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Section 61.017, Labor Code, is amended to read as
    1-4  follows:
    1-5        Sec. 61.017.  DELIVERY OF PAYMENT.  (a)  An employer shall
    1-6  pay wages through a means authorized by this section.
    1-7        (b)  An employer may pay wages by:
    1-8              (1)  delivering them to the employee at the employee's
    1-9  regular place of employment during regular employment hours;
   1-10              (2)  delivering them to the employee at a time and
   1-11  place agreed on by the employer and employee;
   1-12              (3)  sending them to the employee by registered mail,
   1-13  to be received by the employee not later than payday;
   1-14              (4)  delivering them in a manner similar to a manner
   1-15  specified by Subdivision (1), (2), or (3) to a person designated by
   1-16  the employee in writing; or
   1-17              (5)  delivering them to the employee by any reasonable
   1-18  means authorized by the employee in writing.
   1-19        (c)  An employer may pay wages to an employee through the
   1-20  electronic funds transfer of wages to that employee's account
   1-21  provided that:
   1-22              (1)  the employee has access to a credit union or
   1-23  banking facility;
    2-1              (2)  the employer currently has a voluntary electronic
    2-2  funds transfer program with a participation rate of 51 percent or
    2-3  more;
    2-4              (3)  the employer has a domestic or international
    2-5  payroll of 5,000 employees or more; and
    2-6              (4)  the employer provides the employee with access to
    2-7  a statement of the employee's earnings at least one day prior to
    2-8  the employees payday.
    2-9        (d)  An employee that desires to pay wages through electronic
   2-10  funds transfer pursuant to the foregoing provision shall:
   2-11                          (i)  notify each affected employee that the
   2-12  employer is adopting a direct-deposit payroll system; and
   2-13                          (ii)  obtain from the employee any
   2-14  information required in order to make the transfer by the financial
   2-15  institution in which the employee maintains the account.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.