Petitions to complete a partial recount
Under current law, any candidate voted for at an election who is an aggrieved party may petition for a full or partial recount of the votes cast in the jurisdiction or district of the office that the candidate seeks. Current law defines an “aggrieved party” as any of the following:
1. For an election at which 4,000 or fewer votes are cast for the office that the candidate seeks, a candidate who trails the leading candidate by no more than 40 votes.
2. For an election at which more than 4,000 votes are cast for the office that the candidate seeks, a candidate who trails the leading candidate by no more than 1 percent of the total votes cast for that office.
If a candidate who is an aggrieved party petitions for a partial recount, current law provides that the opposing candidate may file a petition for an additional partial or a full recount of the wards or municipalities not subject to the initial partial recount no later than 5 p.m. two days after the initial partial recount is completed.
Under the bill, a candidate must be an aggrieved party in order to petition for an additional partial or a full recount after an initial partial recount is completed. Therefore, if, after an initial partial recount, the opposing candidate becomes an aggrieved party—i.e., the leading candidate becomes the trailing candidate—that opposing candidate may file a petition for an additional partial or a full recount. However, the bill excludes from that authorization to petition for an additional partial or full recount the candidate who filed the petition for the initial partial recount.
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 or 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 the following manner:
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.
Election administration grants
The bill requires the Elections Commission to award grants to cities, villages, and towns for election administration expenses. The bill additionally requires the commission to award up to $400,000 in grants to cities, villages, towns, and counties in the 2025–26 fiscal year for the purchase of election supplies and equipment, including electronic poll books.
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.
Posting sample ballots in non-English languages
Under the bill, if any jurisdiction in the state provides voting materials in one or more languages other than English, the Elections Commission must post on its website the sample ballots for that jurisdiction in each such language.
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.
EMPLOYMENT
Employment regulation
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 (ERC) 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 that do not contain other state or municipal employees.
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 ERC determines which state and municipal employees meet the criteria. Also, the bill allows the ERC to place in the same collective bargaining unit both frontline workers and employees who are not frontline workers. If the ERC 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, the ERC 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, and adds faculty and academic staff employed by the UW System, including those assigned to UW-Madison, to the state employees who may collectively bargain.
Eliminating the right-to-work law
The current right-to-work 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 eliminates these prohibitions and the associated misdemeanor offense for violating the right-to-work law.
The bill 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 the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) determines there is reasonable ground to believe employees in an all-union agreement have changed their attitude about the agreement, WERC must conduct a referendum to determine whether the employees wish to continue the agreement. WERC must 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 allow 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 allow 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 allow 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. 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.
4. Removes the age restriction from the definition of “child” for various purposes under the family and medical leave law.
5. Requires employers to allow 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.
6. Requires employers to allow 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.
7. Requires employers to allow 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 allow 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 herself or himself 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.
Paid family and medical leave benefits
The bill requires employers that are covered by the current family and medical leave law to provide paid benefits to their employees for up to eight weeks of family and medical leave annually, beginning on January 1, 2027. The bill exempts most state employers from required coverage. Under the bill, an employer may buy private insurance to pay benefits to employees. Employers are prohibited from deducting any cost of the insurance from an employee’s paycheck or otherwise seeking reimbursement for the cost of providing the leave benefits.
Under the bill, the amount of leave benefits for a week for which benefits are payable is as follows: 1) for the amount of the employee's average weekly earnings that are not more than 50 percent of the state annual median wage in the calendar year before the employee’s application year, 90 percent of that individual's average weekly earnings; or 2) for the amount of the employee’s average weekly earnings that are more than 50 percent of the state annual median wage in the calendar year before the employee’s application year, 50 percent of that employee’s average weekly earnings.
The bill also provides an employee with the right to appeal a final decision of an employer or an insurer to deny a leave benefit.
Minimum wage
The bill requires the secretary of workforce development to establish a committee to study options to achieve a minimum wage that ensures all workers in this state earn a living wage. 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 must submit a report containing its recommendations for options to achieve a minimum wage and other means to ensure that all workers in this state earn a living wage to the governor and the appropriate standing committees of the legislature no later than October 1, 2026.
Employee right to request and receive work schedule changes
The bill requires an employer to negotiate in good faith with an employee to accommodate changes the employee requests to his or her work schedule. Further, the bill requires that unless an employer has a bona fide business reason for denying the request, the employer must approve an employee’s request if it is directly related to any of the following:
1. A serious health condition of the employee.
2. Responsibilities of the employee as a caregiver for a family member.
3. Enrollment of the employee in certain educational or training programs.
4. A part-time employee’s work scheduling conflicts with the employee’s other employment.
If an employer denies an employee’s request for a schedule change, the employer must inform the employee of the reasons for denial, including whether any of the reasons is a bona fide business reason as defined in the bill.
Service employee right to predictable work schedule
The bill requires an employer that employs an employee in certain service industry occupations, including retail, food service, and cleaning occupations, to provide the service employee with a written copy of the employee’s work schedule on or before the service employee’s first day of work. With certain exceptions, if an employer changes the service employee’s work schedule, the employer must provide the new work schedule to the employee at least 14 days in advance.
The bill also requires that, if an employer changes a service employee’s work schedule with fewer than 14 days’ notice, the employer must pay the service employee an amount equal to the employee’s regular rate of pay for one hour of work. Exceptions to this requirement include when the employee consents to the change or when the employer requires the service employee to work additional time because another employee was scheduled to work that time and is unexpectedly unavailable to work.
The bill also requires the following for employers that use certain scheduling practices:
1. If the service employee reports to work and the employer does not allow the employee to work all time scheduled, the employer must provide the employee with a) full compensation as if the employee had worked the full shift or b) if the employee is scheduled to work more than four hours and works less than four hours, an amount equal to the employee’s regular rate of pay for the difference between four hours and the amount of time the employee actually works.
2. If the employer requires the service employee to contact the employer, or wait to be contacted by the employer less than 24 hours before a work shift to determine whether the employee must report to work, the employer must pay the employee an amount equal to the employee’s regular rate of pay for one hour of work.
3. If the employer requires the service employee to work a split shift, the employer must pay the employee an amount equal to the employee’s regular rate of pay for one hour of work.
If a service employee experiences more than one type of these scheduling practices with respect to a particular work shift, the employer must pay only one type of compensation, whichever is greatest.
The bill also provides that, during any period in which the employer’s regular operations are suspended due to an event outside of the employer’s control, the employer is not required to comply with the service employee work scheduling requirements created in the bill.
Enforcement of rights regarding work schedules
The bill provides that an employer may not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of the right of an employee to request and receive work schedule changes and the right of certain service employees to a predictable work schedule, and may not discharge or discriminate against such an employee for enforcing the employee’s rights under the bill. An employee whose rights are violated may file a complaint with DWD, and DWD must process the complaint in the same manner that employment discrimination complaints are processed under current law. That processing may include the ordering of back pay, reinstatement, compensation in lieu of reinstatement, and costs and attorney fees.
The bill also provides that DWD or an employee whose rights are violated may bring an action in circuit court against the employer without regard to exhaustion of any administrative remedy. If the circuit court finds that a violation has occurred, the employer may be liable to the employee for compensatory damages, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and, under certain circumstances, liquidated damages equal to 100 percent of the amount of compensatory damages awarded to the employee. In addition to any damages imposed on an employer in an administrative proceeding or circuit court action, an employer that willfully violates the protections created in the bill may be required to forfeit not more than $1,000 for each violation.
Liquidated damages in wage claim actions
Under current law, if an employee files a claim in circuit court for unpaid wages, the court may award liquidated damages to the employee in addition to past due wages. Under current law, the liquidated damages are as follows: 1) if an employee files the suit before DWD has finished its investigation and attempted to settle the claim, a court may award not more than 50 percent of the wages due and unpaid and 2) if an employee files the suit after DWD has completed its investigation of a wage claim, a court may award not more than 100 percent of the wages due and unpaid. Under the bill, irrespective of whether DWD has completed its investigation of a wage claim, an employee is presumed to be entitled to 100 percent of the wages due and unpaid in liquidated damages in addition to the unpaid wages due. An employer may rebut this presumption by demonstrating that they acted in good faith and had a reasonable belief that they were in compliance with the law.
Compensation in job posting
