This substitute for House Bill No. 128, like House Bill No. 128, does the following: This Act provides that the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program is the primary payor, and other paid leave benefits must be coordinated with this benefit according to the terms of the policy or procedure governing other benefits. This Act also allows disability insurance benefits to be offset by family and medical leave benefits paid to an employee pursuant to the terms of a disability insurance policy. This Act addresses private plans, and clarifies that an employer that meets its obligations under Chapter 37 of Title 19 through a private plan does not need to provide claim documentation to the Department except if there is an appeal, complaint, audit, or specific inquiry from the Department. Private plan employers with fewer than 25 employees that voluntarily elect to provide coverage under the Chapter that is otherwise exempted due to the size of their companies will be subject to all of the provisions of the Chapter. This Act establishes a Paid Leave Advisory Committee to review issues related to the implementation and administration of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program and to review proposed statutory and regulatory amendments to the program. This substitute differs from House Bill No. 128 as follows: This substitute does not change the calculation of an application year or change the 24-month benefit period to a 12-month benefit period. This substitute adds provisions for child support garnishment of PFMLA benefits. This substitute prohibits the practice of requiring employees to use unused accrued paid time off before accessing PFMLA benefits. This substitute allows the Paid Leave Advisory Committee to begin meeting once the Delaware LaborFirst system is functional and the steering committee has been dissolved. This substitute specifies that family and medical leave benefits cannot be assigned and are exempt from the claims of creditors. This substitute sets forth procedures for executing upon judgments for amounts due under Chapter 37 of Title 19 or other titles subject to this chapter.
This Act prohibits discrimination based on weight, height, or body size in transportation, public accommodation, housing, commerce and trade, employment, jury selection, education, and public administration. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes the significant contributions of nurses as frontline healthcare workers, recognizes the importance of basic protections and rights for this profession, and resolves that the rights of nurses are upheld and promoted throughout the state.
This concurrent resolution designates February 16-22, 2025, as "Grain Bin Safety Week" in Delaware. It recognizes the serious risks of grain handling - citing that over 900 engulfment incidents occurred nationwide with a 62% fatality rate in 50 years - and aims to raise awareness about preventing injuries and deaths in agriculture. The resolution directly affects Delaware’s agricultural community, including farmers, workers, and safety organizations, by promoting education on grain bin hazards. It does not create new laws or allocate funding but serves as a symbolic commitment to safety awareness.
The State of Delaware previously offered an employer match for state employee contributions to the deferred compensation program. The purpose of the match was to help state employees save and build wealth for retirement and to enable state government to recruit and retain talent by offering a valuable retirement savings benefit. In July 2008, during the Great Recession, the State suspended the employer match to cut costs. Every year since fiscal year 2008, the General Assembly has written in the annual appropriations bill: “It is the intent of the General Assembly that this program be reinstated when funding becomes available.” This Act updates the laws governing the employer match in anticipation of the General Assembly restoring the match this session and increases the maximum match to $20 per pay period. This Act also eases restrictions on which participants are eligible for the match. To help employees who are unable to save for retirement because of their student loan burden, this Act enables a match for employee’s student loan payments with employer contributions to their deferred compensation account. Congress enabled employers to make this type of matching contribution with the passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which was included in the Federal Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. This Act provides the Plans Management Board with the discretion to determine which plan the matching contributions should be deposited into.
Currently, the Delaware Educator Apprenticeship Progam offers teacher apprenticeships to aspiring educators in Delaware. This Act expands the Delaware Educator Apprenticeship Program to include paraprofessional apprenticeships (paraprofessional registered occupation programs) and registered youth apprenticeship programs that begin in high school. Under this Act, the DOE will work with the DOL to create at least 1 paraprofessional registered occupation pilot program for the 2025-2026 school year. To that end, the DOE, in partnership with the DOL, must apply for State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula Grants, both formula and competitive funding, for the 2025-2026 school year, along with any other available state or federal funding.
This resolution addresses the issue of workplace violence in healthcare, encourages preventive measures, promotes collaboration and support for healthcare workers, and proclaims the month of April 2025 as “Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention & Awareness Month” in the State of Delaware.
This Act allows an employee organization to file a petition with the Board to become the exclusive representative of an appropriate bargaining unit for the purpose of collective bargaining. In the event an employee organization provides over 50% of the employees’ approval, through their authorized signatures, then the Board may not order an election but must certify the employee organization. This Act also makes technical corrections to confirm existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act exempts from State income tax any income received by a full-time hourly wage-paid employee for overtime work performed in excess of 40 hours in a week. This exemption applies for taxable years beginning on January 1, 2026, and ending before January 1, 2028. This Act also requires each employer to provide information to the Division of Revenue about the total amount of overtime provided to full-time hourly wage-paid employees and the number of employees to whom overtime was paid in taxable years beginning January 1, 2025.
Earned Wage Access (EWA) is a Fintech product that allows workers to voluntarily access the money they have already earned during a pay-period for work they have already completed, ahead of their scheduled payday. Users primarily access EWA services through a mobile app and are only able to withdraw wages their EWA provider has verified that they have already earned. This verification process, coupled with the fact that EWA transactions are non-recourse and credit-invisible make the product distinct from loans and credit cards. As an innovative financial product with distinct characteristics that do not fit within existing regulations, EWA requires a distinct regulatory framework. Currently, more than 100,000 workers in Delaware have already used Earned Wage Access services, which are mostly unregulated in the state. This bill helps ensure that responsible EWA providers can operate under the supervision of Delaware’s banking regulator and continue to serve users in the state of Delaware. Moreover, this bill codifies a regulatory framework that recognizes the distinct characteristics of EWA products and will keep Delawareans protected from bad actors who might seek to use the “Earned Wage Access” moniker, while instead offering a predatory product. Specifically, this bill protects consumers in Delaware by creating a new Earned Wage Access provider license, issued by the Office of the State Bank Commissioner to companies whose products meet the following criteria, ensuring that: • All users have at least one reasonable no-cost option for each transaction • All fees and gratuities are clearly and transparently represented to users before they confirm their transactions • EWA transactions are credit-invisible, that providers do not check a user’s credit before issuing EWA services, nor do they report to a credit agency if a user cancels their service • EWA providers do not pursue recourse against users including charging interest, late fees, or sending unresolved EWA transactions to collections
