3. Audits of election systems and equipment, including with respect to accessibility requirements for individuals with disabilities.
4. Responding to public records requests.
5. Responding to legislative inquiries and requests for assistance.
6. Responding to inquiries from the public.
Voter registration in high schools
Prior to 2011 Wisconsin Act 240, state law required that all public high schools be used for voter registration for enrolled students and members of the high school staff. Prior law also authorized voter registration to take place at a private high school or a tribal school that operates high school grades if requested by the principal. The bill reinstates those provisions. Under the bill, the municipal clerk must notify the school board of each school district in which the municipality is located that high schools will be used for voter registration. The school board and the clerk then appoint at least one qualified voter at each high school to be a special school registration deputy. The bill allows students and staff to register at the school on any day that classes are regularly held. The deputies promptly forward the registration forms to the clerk and the clerk adds qualified voters to the registration list. The clerk may reject a registration form, but the clerk must notify the registrant and inform the registrant of the reason for being rejected. Under the bill, a form completed by an individual who will be 18 years of age before the next election and who is otherwise qualified to vote must be filed in such a way so that the individual is automatically registered to vote when the individual is 18.
Finally, the bill allows a principal of a private high school or tribal school that operates high school grades to request that the municipal clerk appoint a qualified voter at the school to be a special school registration deputy. Under the bill, the clerk must appoint a special school registration deputy if the clerk determines that the private high school or tribal school has a substantial number of students residing in the municipality.
Proof of identification for voting
Current law allows an individual to use as voter identification an unexpired identification card issued by a technical college, college, or university in this state if the card meets certain criteria. The card must have an expiration date that is no later than two years after the date it was issued, and the individual must establish proof of enrollment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit held that the requirement to present both an unexpired identification card and proof of enrollment had no rational basis and was therefore unconstitutional. See, Luft v. Evers, 963 F.3d 665 (2020). The bill allows a student to use an expired student identification card under certain circumstances. Under the bill, a student does not need to present proof of enrollment if using an unexpired identification card, but must provide proof of enrollment if using an expired identification card. In addition, the bill requires each technical college in this state and each UW System institution to issue student identification cards that meet the criteria to be used as voter identification no later than August 1, 2023.
Current law also allows an individual to use as voter identification an identification card issued by DOT. DOT may issue a receipt as a temporary identification card to use for voting and other purposes to an individual who is waiting for the permanent card. The receipt expires in 60 days. The bill extends the expiration date to 180 days.
Special elections to fill vacancies in the office of U.S. senator and representative in congress
Under current law, a vacancy in the office of U.S. senator or representative in Congress occurring prior to the second Tuesday in April in the year of the general election must be filled at a special primary and special election. A vacancy occurring in one of these offices between the second Tuesday in April and the second Tuesday in May in the year of the general election is filled at the partisan primary and general election.
Current law provides that a special primary be held four weeks before the day of the special election. However, if the election is held on the same day as the spring election, the special primary is held concurrently with the spring primary. Under current law, with regard to an election for a national office, the period between a special primary and special election or between the spring primary and spring election does not provide sufficient time to canvass and certify the primary results and prepare ballots to send to overseas voters as required by federal law.
Under the bill, a vacancy in the office of U.S. senator or representative in Congress is filled in one of the following manners:
1. At a special election to be held on the third Tuesday in May following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held concurrently with the spring primary on the third Tuesday in February.
2. At a special election to be held on the second Tuesday in August following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held on the third Tuesday in May.
3. At a special election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November following the first day of the vacancy with a special primary to be held on the second Tuesday in August.
However, under the bill, a November special election is not held in any year in which the general election is held for that office; instead, the vacancy is filled at the partisan primary and general election.
Reimbursement of counties and municipalities for certain election costs
The bill requires the Elections Commission to reimburse counties and municipalities for certain costs incurred in the administration of special primaries and special elections for state or national office. A cost is eligible for reimbursement only if certain conditions are met, including that the commission determines the cost is reasonable and the rate paid by the county or municipality for the cost does not exceed the rate customarily paid for similar costs at a primary or election that is not a special primary or election. Under the bill, only the following costs may be reimbursed:
1. Rental payments for polling places.
2. Election day wages paid to election officials working at the polls.
3. Costs for the publication of required election notices.
4. Printing and postage costs for absentee ballots and envelopes.
5. Costs for the design and printing of ballots and poll books.
6. Purchase of ballot bags or containers, including ties or seals for chain of custody purposes.
7. Costs to program electronic voting machines.
8. Purchase of memory devices for electronic voting machines.
9. Wages paid to conduct a county canvass.
10. Data entry costs for the statewide voter registration system.
Grants for the purchase of election supplies and equipment
The bill authorizes the Elections Commission to award grants to counties and municipalities for the purchase of election supplies and equipment, including electronic poll books.
Appropriation for clerk training
Current law appropriates money annually from the general fund to the Elections Commission for training county and municipal clerks concerning voter identification requirements. The bill expands this appropriation to authorize expenditures for training county and municipal clerks for the administration of elections generally.
Recount fees
Current law requires the Elections Commission to reimburse the counties for the actual costs of conducting a recount. The reimbursement comes from the fees that the commission collects from the person that filed the recount petition. The bill changes the appropriation for reimbursing the counties from an annual appropriation to a continuing appropriation.
EMINENT DOMAIN
Condemnation authority for nonmotorized paths
The bill allows certain entities, such as a county board, village board, or DOT, to use the power of condemnation to acquire land or interests in land for the purpose of establishing or extending recreational trails, bicycle ways or lanes, or pedestrian ways. Current law prohibits the exercise of condemnation power to acquire land or interests in land for those purposes.
EMPLOYMENT
Employment regulation
Minimum wage increase
The bill annually raises the minimum wage to be paid to most employees, from the effective date of the bill through January 1, 2027. After that date, the bill requires DWD to determine the percentage difference between the consumer price index for the preceding 12-month period and the consumer price index for the 12 months before the preceding 12-month period, adjust the minimum wages then in effect by that percentage difference, and publish that amount in the Wisconsin Administrative Register and on the DWD website.
The bill requires the secretary of workforce development to establish a committee to study options to achieve a $15 per hour minimum wage and other options to increase compensation for workers in this state. Under the bill, the committee consists of nine members, with five appointed by the governor, and one each appointed by the speaker of the assembly, the assembly minority leader, the senate majority leader, and the senate minority leader. The committee is required to submit a report containing its recommendations for options to achieve a $15 per hour minimum wage and other options to increase compensation to the governor and the appropriate standing committees of the legislature no later than October 1, 2024.
Collective bargaining for state and local employees; employee rights
Under current law, state and local governments are prohibited from collectively bargaining with employees except as expressly provided in the statutes. Current law allows certain protective occupation participants under the Wisconsin Retirement System, known as public safety employees, and certain municipal transit employees to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. Under current law, other state and municipal employees may collectively bargain only over a percentage increase in base wages that does not exceed the percentage increase in the consumer price index. In addition, under current law, the Employment Relations Commission assigns employees to collective bargaining units, but current law requires that public safety employees and municipal transit employees be placed in separate collective bargaining units.
The bill adds frontline workers to the groups that may collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. In the bill, “frontline workers” are state or municipal employees with regular job duties that include interacting with members of the public or with large populations of people or that directly involve the maintenance of public works. Under the bill, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) determines which state and municipal employees meet the criteria. Also, the bill allows WERC to place in the same collective bargaining unit both frontline workers and employees who are not frontline workers. If WERC places employees of both types in a collective bargaining unit, the entire collective bargaining unit is treated as if all members are frontline workers and all members may collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment.
Under current law, state or municipal employees in a collective bargaining unit elect their representative. The representative for a unit containing public safety employees or transit employees requires the support of the majority of the employees who are voting in the election, and the representative for a unit containing other employees requires the support of the majority of all of the employees who are in the collective bargaining unit. Under the bill, the representative for any collective bargaining unit containing any state or municipal employees requires the support of the majority of the employees who are voting in the election regardless of the number of employees who are in the collective bargaining unit.
Under current law, WERC must conduct an annual election to certify each representative of a collective bargaining unit representing state or municipal employees who are not public safety employees or transit employees. At the election, if a representative fails to receive at least 51 percent of the votes of all of the members of the collective bargaining unit, the representative is decertified and the employees are unrepresented. The bill eliminates this annual recertification process.
The bill requires state and municipal employers to consult about wages, hours, and conditions of employment with their employees who are not public safety employees, transit employees, or frontline workers. The employers must consult either when policy changes that affect wages, hours, or conditions are proposed or implemented or, in the absence of policy changes, at least quarterly.
The bill adds that employees of authorities, such as the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, WHEDA, and WEDC, may collectively bargain as state employees.
Eliminating the right-to-work law
Current law prohibits a person from requiring, as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment, an individual to refrain or resign from membership in a labor organization, to become or remain a member of a labor organization, to pay dues or other charges to a labor organization, or to pay any other person an amount that is in place of dues or charges required of members of a labor organization. The bill repeals these prohibitions and the associated misdemeanor offense.
The bill also explicitly provides that, when an all-union agreement is in effect, it is not an unfair labor practice to encourage or discourage membership in a labor organization or to deduct labor organization dues or assessments from an employee’s earnings. The bill sets conditions under which an employer may enter into an all-union agreement. The bill also sets conditions for the continuation or termination of all-union agreements, including that, if WERC determines there is reasonable ground to believe employees in an all-union agreement have changed their attitude about the agreement, WERC is required to conduct a referendum to determine whether the employees wish to continue the agreement. WERC is required to terminate an all-union agreement if it finds the union unreasonably refused to admit an employee into the union.
Prevailing wage
The bill requires that laborers, workers, mechanics, and truck drivers employed on the site of certain projects of public works be paid the prevailing wage and not be required or allowed to work a greater number of hours per day and per week than the prevailing hours of labor unless they are paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of the prevailing hours of labor. Projects subject to the bill include state and local projects of public works, including state highway projects, with exceptions including projects below certain cost thresholds, minor service or maintenance work, and certain residential projects. Under the bill, “prevailing wage rate” is defined as the hourly basic rate of pay, plus the hourly contribution for bona fide economic benefits, paid for a majority of the hours worked in a trade or occupation in the area in which the project is located, except that, if there is no rate at which a majority of those hours is paid, “prevailing wage rate” means the average hourly basic rate of pay, plus the average hourly contribution for bona fide economic benefits, paid for the highest-paid 51 percent of hours worked in a trade or occupation in the area. “Prevailing hours of labor” is defined as 10 hours per day and 40 hours per week, excluding weekends and holidays. The bill requires DWD to conduct investigations and hold public hearings as necessary to define the trades or occupations that are commonly employed on projects that are subject to the prevailing wage law and to inform itself of the prevailing wage rates in all areas of the state for those trades or occupations, in order to determine the prevailing wage rate for each trade or occupation. The bill contains certain other provisions regarding the calculation of prevailing wage rates by DWD, including provisions allowing persons to request recalculations or reviews of the prevailing wage rates determined by DWD.
The bill requires contracts and notices for bids for projects subject to the bill to include and incorporate provisions ensuring compliance with the requirements. The bill also establishes a requirement that state agencies and local governments post prevailing wage rates and hours of labor in areas readily accessible to persons employed on the project or in sites regularly used for posting notices.
The bill makes a contractor that fails to pay the prevailing wage rate or overtime pay to an employee as required under the prevailing wage law liable to the affected employee for not only the amount of unpaid wages and overtime pay, but also for liquidated damages in an amount equal to 100 percent of the unpaid wages and overtime pay.
Finally, the bill includes, for both state and local projects of public works, provisions regarding coverage, compliance, enforcement, and penalties, including 1) requirements for affidavits to be filed by contractors affirming compliance with the prevailing wage law; 2) record retention requirements for contractors regarding wages paid to workers and provisions allowing for the inspection of those records by DWD; 3) liability and penalty provisions for certain violations, including criminal penalties; and 4) provisions prohibiting contracts from being awarded to persons who have failed to comply with the prevailing wage law.
Family and medical leave expansion
Under the current family and medical leave law, an employer that employs at least 50 individuals on a permanent basis must permit an employee who has been employed by the employer for more than 52 consecutive weeks and who has worked for the employer for at least 1,000 hours during the preceding 52 weeks to take family leave to care for the employee’s child, spouse, domestic partner, or parent who has a serious health condition. Employers covered under the law must also permit an employee covered under the law to take up to two weeks of medical leave in a 12-month period when that employee has a serious health condition. An employee may file a complaint with DWD regarding an alleged violation of the family and medical leave law within 30 days after either the violation occurs or the employee should reasonably have known that the violation occurred, whichever is later.
The bill makes the following changes to the family and medical leave law:
1. Requires employers covered under the law to permit employees covered under the law to take family leave to provide for a grandparent, grandchild, or sibling who has a serious health condition.
2. Decreases the number of hours an employee is required to work before qualifying for family and medical leave to 680 hours during the preceding 52 weeks.
3. Increases the amount of weeks an employee is able to take in family and medical leave for any eligible reason to 12 weeks.
4. Extends the time period in which an employee may file a complaint with DWD to 300 days after either the violation occurs or the employee should reasonably have known that the violation occurred, whichever is later.
5. Removes the age restriction from the definition of “child” for various purposes under the family and medical leave law.
6. Requires employers to permit employees to take family leave in the instance of an unforeseen or unexpected gap in childcare for an employee’s child, grandchild, or sibling or because of a qualifying exigency as to be determined by DWD related to covered active duty, as defined in the bill, or notification of an impending call or order to covered active duty of an employee’s child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling who is a member of the U.S. armed forces.
7. Requires employers to permit employees to take family leave to address issues related to the employee or the employee’s child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling being the victim of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, or stalking.
8. Requires employers to permit employees to take family leave to care for a child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling of an employee who is in medical isolation and requires employers to permit employees to take medical leave when an employee is in medical isolation. The bill defines “medical isolation” to include when a local health officer or DHS advises that an individual isolate or quarantine; when a health care professional, a local health officer, or DHS advises that an individual seclude himself or herself when awaiting the results of a diagnostic test for a communicable disease or when the individual is infected with a communicable disease; and when an individual’s employer advises that the individual not come to the workplace due to a concern that the individual may have been exposed to or infected with a communicable disease.
Family and medical leave benefits insurance program
The bill creates a family and medical leave benefits insurance program, to be administered by DWD, under which a covered individual who is on certain family or medical leave is eligible, beginning on January 1, 2025, to receive up to 12 weeks of family or medical leave insurance benefits as specified in the bill from the family and medical leave benefits insurance trust fund created under the bill. For purposes of the bill, the following definitions apply:
1. A “covered individual” is an individual who worked for the same employer for at least 680 hours in the calendar year prior to the year in which the covered individual claims family or medical leave insurance benefits (application year) or a self-employed individual who elects coverage under the program.
2. “Family leave” means leave from employment, self-employment, or availability for employment for the birth or adoptive placement of a new child; to care for a family member who has a serious health condition or is in medical isolation; for covered active duty; or to address issues related to being the victim of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, or stalking.
3. “Medical leave” means leave from employment, self-employment, or availability for employment when a covered individual is in medical isolation or has a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform his or her employment duties.
Under the bill, the amount of family or medical leave insurance benefits for a week for which those benefits are payable is as follows:
1. For the amount of the covered individual’s average weekly earnings that are less than 50 percent of the state annual median wage in the calendar year before the individual’s application year, 90 percent of that individual’s average weekly earnings.
2. For the amount of the covered individual’s average weekly earnings that are more than 50 percent of the state annual median wage in the calendar year before the individual’s application year, 50 percent of that individual’s average weekly earnings.
Beginning on January 1, 2025, the bill generally requires each individual employed in this state by an employer that regularly employs at least 50 individuals, including an individual employed by the state, and any self-employed individual who elects coverage under the family and medical leave benefits insurance program to contribute to the trust fund a percentage of his or her wages from employment or income from self-employment. Under the bill, each employer must contribute the same amount as an employee. The bill requires DWD to collect those contributions in the same manner as DWD collects contributions to the unemployment reserve fund under current law.
The bill, however, provides that an employer that provides paid family and medical leave benefits that are identical to or more generous than those provided under the program may request an exemption from participation in the program. The bill requires DWD to promulgate administrative rules to provide exemptions from participation in the program.
The bill further does the following:
1. Requires DWD to promulgate administrative rules providing for a right to a hearing in cases of disputes involving an individual’s eligibility for benefits or status as a covered individual under the program.
2. Requires DWD to promulgate administrative rules providing for a right to a hearing in cases involving the liability of employers for contributions under the program.
3. Allows DWD to seek repayment of family or medical leave insurance benefits that are paid erroneously or as a result of willful misrepresentation. The bill allows DWD to establish other procedures for recovering overpayments and allows DWD to utilize procedures under the unemployment insurance law.
Solicitation of compensation information
The bill prohibits certain employer conduct related to compensation information of current and prospective employees. The bill prohibits an employer from doing any of the following with respect to a prospective employee:
1. Relying on or soliciting information about the prospective employee’s current or prior compensation. Under current law, an employer may solicit information about a prospective employee’s current or prior compensation. The bill repeals that provision.
