HBA-MPM H.B. 2126 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2126 By: Tillery Business & Industry 3/26/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Most public school employees receive a salary for 10 months of work but are paid on a monthly basis for the entire year. This reduces their weekly take home pay but allows there to be income for twelve months. This may put a public school employee receiving workers' compensation benefits at a disadvantage, since current law specifies that workers' compensation benefits are calculated based on the last 13 weeks of wages paid to the individual. House Bill 2126 provides that workers' compensation benefits be calculated based on what a public school employee earns in one week rather than what the employee is actually paid for the purposes of determining workers' compensation benefits. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2126 amends the Labor Code to provide that the average weekly wage of a school district employee is computed on the basis of wages earned in a week rather than on the basis of wages paid in a week for purposes of calculating workers' compensation benefits. The bill specifies that wages earned in any given week are equal to an amount that would be deducted from an employee's salary if the employee were absent from work for one week and the employee did not have personal leave available to compensate the employee for lost wages. The bill provides that existing law regarding the computation of average weekly wages for the purposes of determining workers' compensation benefits do not apply to the computation of a weekly wage for a school district employee. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.