HB 7501 Summary

• Establishes a Workforce Training Authority within the Labor Department with a board composition that changes on May 1, 2020, to include representatives from workforce investment boards, labor unions, construction trades, higher education institutions, and organizations serving minorities and formerly incarcerated individuals.

• Creates the Workforce Training Authority Fund to provide training assistance to public and private entities in construction, health care, early childhood education, insurance, financial services, bioscience, advanced manufacturing, digital media, green technology, and tourism, with administrative costs capped at 5% of annual funding.

• Requires the Labor Commissioner to adopt regulations by April 1, 2020, governing gratuities for tipped employees who perform both service and nonservice duties, aligned with federal Fair Labor Standards Act standards (the "80/20 rule").

• Mandates the Labor Department to conduct a study of workforce development programs by May 1, 2020, and submit findings to the legislature by January 1, 2021, addressing program locations, staffing, employer utilization, and coordination between state and local workforce boards.

• Requires the Labor Commissioner to conduct random wage and hour audits of at least 75 restaurants within 30 days of regulations adoption and report compliance findings to the legislature within one year; appropriates $120,717 for three wage and hour investigators for fiscal year 2020.