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.