The bill increases the principal registration fee from $375 to $430 and the
authorization statement fee from $125 to $180. The increase first applies to lobbying
that occurs during the 2023-24 legislative session.
The bill also imposes a $55 surcharge applicable to lobbying during the 2021-22
legislative session that is in addition to the fees collected for filing the principal
registration form and the authorization statement.
EMINENT DOMAIN
Condemnation authority for recreational trails, bicycle lanes and ways, and
pedestrian ways
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 for those purposes.

employment
Employment regulation
Minimum wage
The bill raises the minimum wages to be paid to most employees annually, from
the effective date of the bill through January 1, 2025. 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, to adjust the minimum wages then
in effect by that percentage difference, and to publish those amounts 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, 2022.
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, ERC determines which state and
municipal employees meet the criteria. Also, the bill allows ERC to place in the same
collective bargaining unit both frontline workers and employees that are not
frontline workers. If 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, 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
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 University of Wisconsin
Hospitals and Clinics Authority, WHEDA, and WEDC, may collectively bargain as
state employees.
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 repeals 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 assessment from an employee's
earnings. The bill sets conditions under which an employer may enter in an
all-union agreement. The bill also sets conditions for the continuation or
termination of all-union agreements, including that, if ERC determines there is
reasonable ground to believe employees in an all-union agreement have changed
their attitude about the agreement, ERC is required to conduct a referendum to
determine whether the employees wish to continue the agreement. ERC 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.
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
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 a child, spouse, domestic partner, or parent of the employee who has
a serious health condition. An employer covered by the law must also permit an

employee to take up to two weeks of medical leave in a 12-month period when the
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 that employ 25 or more employees on a permanent basis
to comply with the family and medical leave law.