BILL REQ. #:  S-3857.2 

Read first time 01/29/14.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to establishing a temporary teen training wage; and adding new sections to chapter 49.46 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 49.46 RCW to read as follows:
     The legislature acknowledges that pursuant to Initiative Measure No. 688 enacted by Washington state voters in 1998, the state director of labor and industries is authorized by rule to set a subminimum wage for youth, and has set a wage for young workers aged fourteen and fifteen at eighty-five percent of the state minimum wage. The purpose of this subminimum wage rule is to incentivize employers to hire unskilled teen workers. The legislature finds that over the last decade, Washington has consistently ranked among the top ten states with the highest unemployment rate for sixteen to nineteen year olds, which negatively impacts an individual's long-term employment prospects and earning potential.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 49.46 RCW to read as follows:
     Employers may pay teen training wages to new employees sixteen to nineteen years of age at eighty-five percent of the minimum wage required under RCW 49.46.020, or at the minimum wage rate required under federal law, whichever is greater. Employees working under the teen training wage may not constitute more than ten percent of an employer's workforce, except that employers with fewer than twenty employees may employ two employees at a time using the teen wage.