BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
Ted W. Lieu, Chair
Date of Hearing: April 10, 2013 2013-2014 Regular
Session
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Fiscal:No
Urgency: No
Bill No: SB 558
Author: Lieu
As Introduced/Amended: February 22, 2013
SUBJECT
Unemployment insurance: Employment Development Department.
KEY ISSUE
Should the Legislature permit the Employment Development
Department to accept electronic request from an employee or an
employee's representative for the employee's wage information?
ANALYSIS
Existing law vests the Employment Development Department (EDD)
with the responsibility of ensuring employers remit appropriate
Unemployment Insurance (UI) contributions and to collect the
employee wage deductions to the Disability Fund. EDD uses these
funds to finance the Unemployment Insurance and Disability
Insurance (DI) Programs.
(Unemployment Insurance Code �� 301, 976, 984, 1025-1037,
1555-1562, & 3001-3015)
Existing law also authorizes EDD to collect personal income
taxes required to be withheld by employers. (Unemployment
Insurance Code �� 13000 &13020)
Existing law requires that EDD collects appropriate data in
order to carry out the responsibilities listed above. This
information includes the employer's name and address, the number
and contact information of employees employed by an employer,
the wages paid to those employees, and any independent
contractors that have performed services for an employer.
(Unemployment Insurance Code �� 1085-1093)
Existing law requires that, unless specifically provided, the
information obtained in the administration of the UI Program and
DI program are confidential and must be used for the exclusive
use and information of the director of Employment Development
Department (EDD) in discharge of his or her duties. Any person
violating the confidentiality of this information is guilty of a
misdemeanor. (Unemployment Insurance Code �1094)
Existing law provides that any employee or his or her
representative may receive his or her wage information upon
written request by the employee. The information shall be
provided without charge.
This bill would provide that the request by an employee for the
employee's wage information does not need to be written.
COMMENTS
1. Need for this bill?
Due to the responsibilities of the Employment Development
Department (EDD) in receiving the state payroll tax
remittances, EDD has a complete record of every employee's
wage information. Current law allows for an employee or his
or her representative to request the employee's wage
information from the Employment Development Department.
However, according to the Employment Development Department, a
little less than 6,400 employees requested their wage data in
2012. In the past three years, the average is a bit under
6,000 employee requests per year.
The author and the proponents of this measure feel that this
low level of requests is a sign that the program is
underutilized and needs to be modernized. SB 558 seeks to do
this by striking the requirement that the employee's request
is written, allowing EDD to explore the possibility of the
request being electronic while continuing to accept written
requests and also protect the confidentiality of the
Hearing Date: April 10, 2013 SB 558
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 2
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
employee's wage information.
2. Proponent Arguments :
FIS, a provider of financial services technology, argues that
only allowing a written request for an employee's wage
information is an unnecessary hindrance for employee's
accessing their own information. FIS also argues that SB 558
preserves the ability of employees to send in written
requests, while also giving EDD the ability to modernize their
operations. Finally, FIS also believes that providing
employees access through secure electronic requests and
transmission could make the data more available for employees
and save California money.
3. Prior Legislation :
SB 1284 (Lieu) of 2012 would have allowed the Director of
Employment Development to electronically transmit wage
information of an employee to a creditor, upon the execution
of a release by an employee. SB 1284 was set for a hearing
before this Committee, but the hearing was cancelled at the
request of the author.
SUPPORT
FIS Financial Service Technology
OPPOSITION
None on file.
Hearing Date: April 10, 2013 SB 558
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 3
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations