Child care services-employment benefits.

03LSO-0280.L2

FISCAL NOTE (HB0195)

This bill would exclude from Workers’ Compensation (WC) coverage an individual providing child care services whose wages are subsidized by the Department of Family Services. The issue of whether a child care provider was considered an employee for coverage under Workers’ Compensation was raised this year when a child care provider whose wages were paid in part by DFS filed an unemployment claim. The financial impact of this is indeterminable. Although the bill would seem to reduce revenue and expenditures for the Industrial Accident Fund (Workers’ Compensation), the Department of Employment does not believe that any Workers’ Compensation taxes have been paid on behalf of these employees in the past and has no knowledge that any child care provider paid by DFS has filed a WC claim.

Although the Department of Family Services does not employ day care providers, passage of this bill should protect the Department from claims for workers’ compensation benefits by day care providers who are receiving subsidies from the Department to provide child care services. There are currently 1,877 home day care providers eligible to receive subsidies from the Department on behalf of low-income parents. These parents have 1,510 children with the home day care providers. If current subsidy payments are considered salaries, then the Agency may be required to pay benefits to those salaries, which could result in reductions across the Early Childhood Development Program.

This bill has administrative impact that appears to increase (or decrease) duties or responsibilities of one or more state agencies and may impact agency spending or staffing requirements. As introduced, the bill does not modify any state agency budget or current personnel authorizations. The following state agencies may be affected administratively:

Department of Family Services

Prepared by: Wendy Madsen, LSO Phone: 777-7881

(Information provided by Paul Yaksic, Department of Family Services,

777-6100 and Beth Nelson, Department of Employment, 777-6402)