SB 308 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Revising workers' compensation insurance laws to remove the limitation on benefits to the state's weekly average wage

SB 308 would remove Montana's current limit on workers' compensation benefits that capped payments at the state's average weekly wage. Instead, it would establish a fixed maximum benefit of $2,885 per week for all eligible injured workers. This change would directly affect higher-earning workers who previously received reduced benefits due to the wage-based cap. The bill amends specific sections of Montana's workers' compensation code to implement this fixed maximum payment structure.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Mar 2025
Senate Passage
Mar 2025
House Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action May 23, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

SB0308_1(5).pdf SB0308_2.pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill was amended to replace the vague cap on workers' compensation benefits with a specific dollar limit of $2,885 per week. Additionally, the bill title was updated to explicitly include 'volunteer' and 'volunteer firefighter' in the list of covered individuals, clarifying that these groups are now explicitly included in the definition of 'employee' or 'worker' for compensation purposes.
Scope change
The bill's scope was expanded by explicitly adding 'volunteer' and 'volunteer firefighter' to the statutory definition of covered workers, whereas the previous version relied on general language.
DEFINITION

The definition of 'employee' or 'worker' was updated to explicitly list 'volunteer' and 'volunteer firefighter' as covered categories.

REQUIREMENT

The maximum weekly compensation benefit limit was changed from a reference to the 'state's average weekly wage' to a fixed cap of $2,885.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 4, 2025

How they voted

2624
Passed
Total votes 50
Mar 4, 2025
D Democratic18
18 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican32
8 Yea 24 Nay
75% Nay
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
30
Key actions
4
Committee
5
Amendments
1
Mar 20, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Finance and Claims
upper
Mar 20, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Finance and Claims
upper
Mar 4, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (26-24)
senate
Mar 4, 2025
Committee
(S) Rereferred to Committee - (S) Finance and Claims
upper
Mar 1, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
upper
Mar 1, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
upper
Feb 13, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
upper
Feb 12, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Derek Harvey
Derek Harvey
DDemocratic
MT
37